MEAC's Mark See (R) drives to the basket while being guarded by I-Cyber's Tan Ye Wei in last night's 1st Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) League game at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat. BT/Yee Chun Leong
MOCHI-EACH A Cup (MEAC) overturned a 10-point deficit at halftime to defeat I-Cyber 91-74 in the 1st Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) League last night.
MEAC shot poorly from the field and trailed 42-32 at the interval against their taller opponents. They switched to full court man-to-man defence to turn the tides and oust their opponents at the BBA court in Batu Besurat.
It resulted in MEAC outscoring their I-Cyber opponents 34-12 in the 10-minute frame en route to their second straight victory. There was no way back for I-Cyber, who trailed by as many as 18 points in the final period, as they clearly had nothing left in their tank.
Benjamin Lim had the hot hands for MEAC with a game-high of 29 points which included six three-pointers. Mark See also had a good outing with a contribution of 21 points in the triumph.
On the other side, Shim Jan Ting notched 18 points to pace I-Cyber while Goh Kheng Yih chipped in 16 points. Tan Ye Wei also got into double figures with 15 points while Han Yee Kwang added 13 points to a losing cause.
MEAC coach Jacky Liew credited the team's defence for the win.
"They (I-Cyber) were getting a lot of offensive rebounds as we were not tall enough. We had to switch to man-to-man defence as our zone defence was not working," said Liew in an interview with The Brunei Times after the match.
"We struggled offensively in the first half but I have to credit the team for the good defence in the second half that got us the win," he added.
The second match saw Yuan Thong Enterprise (YTE) pull off an 80-73 triumph over the shorthanded Le Doux Patisserie, who contested in the matchup without the trio of key players Ben Sim, Muhd Zainul Ashyraf Hj Hussin and Choo Yung Jian.
MEAC are at the top of the six-team league with a 2-0 win loss record. YTE follow behind on 2-1. Both Le Doux and I-Cyber are on 1-1 while DMC Enterprise and Bukit Ladang are on 0-1 and 0-2 respectively. The competition continues on Friday with two more matches starting at 7pm.
