No 'Easy' escape as Sharks drop Soon Lee

Yee Chun Leong

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Sunday, August 1, 2010

IT was not the kind of start that Soon Lee-Easyway had hoped for as they fell 82-89 to Sharks in Group A of the 2010 Sultan's Cup last night at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

(photo left: Soon Lee-Easyway's Lim Aik Hock (L) going for a layup over Sharks's Geve Leones yesterday. Picture: BT)

Five of the players hit double figures for Soon Lee-Easyway with Lim Liang Wei pouring in a team-high 18 points.

Aries Castro had a game-high 25 points to pace Sharks towards the win.

Soon Lee-Easyway played catch up to the Sharks right from the start as they failed to find the bottom of the net despite getting decent looks. Castro, meanwhile, led the charge for Sharks by scoring 13 points to give them a 29-11 lead, going into the second stanza.

Soon Lee-Easyway managed to regroup in the second period and began passing the ball better. They deployed their man-to-man defence and managed to put up a 17-6 run to cut the deficit to 39-27 at the six-minute mark.

They were also wearing their opponents down and had the momentum swing in their favour but the scoreboard still read 48-36 in favour of Sharks at halftime.

Sharks came out strongly at the defensive end after the interval and limited their opponents to outside shots. Leones was running the offence for the Filipino side but was stopped in his tracks when Hj Md Badri Hj Suhaili was given the assignment of guarding him.

Each time Sharks tried to pull away, Soon Lee-Easyway would answer and they found themselves within striking distance at 60-69 heading into the final stanza.

Turnovers by Sharks allowed Soon Lee-Easyway to narrow the score deficit within 70-71 with six minutes left to play.

Sharks would respond with stronger play on the rebounds while outhustling their opponents to widen their lead to hung on for the victory.

Elvin Requintin, the playing coach of Sharks, felt that it was their defence that got the job done.

"Our opponents have very good stamina and our bench haven't had enough conditioning. We worked hard on defence and our shots were falling as well. Leones is also in good shape and he managed to get it done too," he said.
National basketball coach Kevin Reece felt that it was a difficult loss to swallow but the team would remain positive with their remaining matches in the tournament.

"I take my hat off to our opponents as they played well but I think the Bruneians give the Filipinos too much respect as we're not suppose to beat them," said Reece. Read More…

Source: The Brunei Times

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