Basketball: Kim Lock beat LOS-SSL for Under-18 crown

Kim Lock Hardware players
show off their trophies after being crowned the champions of the 2nd
Under-18 Brunei Youth Basketball Championship at the Kampung Baru Basketball court in Seria on Sunday. Picture: Courtesy of BYBC

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Tuesday, April 13, 2010

KIM LOCK Hardware were crowned champions of the 2nd Under-18 Brunei Basketball Youth Championship (BYBC) on Sunday night after beating LOS-SSL 67-60 at the Kampung Baru Basketball court in Seria.

DelightzCafe bagged the bronze after defeating Meteorsterne 74-50 in the
third-place playoff also on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Under-21 competition is set to begin today with a total of 10 teams separated into two groups battling it out for top honours in a tournament organised by Jason Lee and Sunny Voon in co-operation with the Belait District Basketball Association (BDBA).

Group A are made up of Chicken King, Pyromian, Binaan Janah Jaya, Starz Boutique and Awesome while Group B feature Crasher, Yun Hin, Choo Seng, American International Industries (AII) and Easyway, who are the defending champions.

The curtain-raiser will see Chicken King play Starz Boutique at 7pm.

The second match will pit Awesome against Binaan Janah Jaya at 8.15pm. The top four teams from each group will advance to the quarter-finals. The final will be played on May 1.

The Under-16 competition was held last month and was won by Chen Bro's Engineering.

Source: The Brunei Times

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Can Soon Lee-Easyway bounce back?

Reece hopes his boys can
secure a semi-final berth today. Picture: BT

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Saturday, April 10, 2010

THE national basketball team, playing under the Soon Lee-Easyway banner, are locked and loaded to gun down the visiting Ilonggo Stingers when they meet in a knockout game in Group B of the BBA Open Challenge Trophy at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat tonight.

Soon Lee-Easyway went down 99-84 to Babes Boutique on Tuesday night and national basketball coach, Kevin Reece, has rung the
changes going into today's match to ensure victory, which will take them
to the semi-finals.

"We cannot be over aggressive and we'll needbetter defence. We gave away too many fouls without moving our feet and only moving our hands the last time," said Reece, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

"We've made the right adjustments but we know we're up against a difficult team. They have played together for years," added Reece.

"We failed out first test against a championship-calibre team, but we've been given another chance to take our team to the next level," continued the 49-year-old coach.

In addition, the national coach feels that they need to execute better down the stretch after a see-saw battle with the 2009 Brunei Pepsi Cup
champions.

"We need to do a better job on our half court set. (OnTuesday) the players missed a lot of signals from the point guards in turn they ended up just standing around on the court," said Reece.

However, the team's first loss under the American is just part of the learning curve that is going to help shape them further. Read More...

Source: The Brunei Times

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National team vow to return

(Above) Ben Sim (L) of Soon Lee-Easyway goes for a layup against Edward Mendez of Babes
Boutique during Tuesday's game. (Top) National coach Kevin Reece
reacts. Pictures: BT/Maui Salazar

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Thursday, April 8, 2010

NATIONAL basketball coach Kevin Reece is adamant that his charges will bounce back in their next BBA Open Challenge Trophy game. Playing under the Soon Lee-Easyway banner, the national team were handed their first loss infront of a largely Filipino crowd at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat, going down 99-84 to Babes Boutique on Tuesday. Tuesday night's performance was in stark contrast to their two previous games, in which they dished out an 86-point
thumping to Al-Ssarah Eagles and a 120-point demolition of Ford.

"They (have) never seen a coach like me that will stay on top of each and
every play, good or bad. I will talk to them to try to make them think
about the entire game," said Reece, in an interview with The Brunei
Times, yesterday.

"This team is on a mission and with that we will have some setbacks but as a whole, we are a bunch of no-names that nobody gives a chance and we showed we can play with the best team in Brunei at the moment," added Reece.

"We are eager and hungry to prove to ourselves that we can and will play harder to win," continued the 49-year-old.

The Los Angeles native felt that it was his team's troubles with boxing out that led to easy second chance points and their subsequent demise.

"They know luck was on their side and many commented on our defensive efforts but we didn't play well enough down the stretch to win," added the American.

However, the offence was also stagnant, particularly during set plays.

"The fastbreak was there all night and when we did go into our set offence, our ball movement wasn't as crisp but we made some adjustments at halftime and played a 1-4 offensive set and managed to score a few baskets," said Reece. Read More...

Source: The Brunei Times

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Castro leads Shark attack in win over Teik

Shark Team's power forward
Elvin Requintin (C) shoots as Ang Chee Yong (R) of Teik Goldsmith
watches on during their Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) Open Challenge Trophy match last night. Shark won the game at the BBA court in Batu Bersurat 90-81. Picture: BT/Yusri Adanan

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Sunday, April 4, 2010


ARIES Raymond Castro proved that a cool head often prevails over young legs in last night's Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) Open Challenge Trophy by racking up a game-high 33 points to lead Shark Team to a 90-81 win over Teik Goldsmith.

The 40-year-old forward was on fire in the second quarter, his two shots from downtown sparking an 8-1 run which built the platform that Shark rode to their second win of the tournament.

"I was just lucky today (Saturday)," said a humble Castro after the match at the BBA court in Batu Bersurat.

"Our defence helped us. We're a very defensive team," he added.

Teik enjoyed a 25-20 advantage heading into the second period, but Castro's first three-pointer of the quarter gave his team a 33-32 lead with three minutes left in the half.

A lay-up by Ariel Managbanag made it 35-32, and Castro added to that when he hit another trey.

Two consecutive jumpers from the right baseline a minute later made it
41-34, and Shark would go on to score two more points to end the half
43-34. Read More…

Source: The Brunei Times

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Too easy for Easyway

A Soon Lee-Easyway player
(second from left) is being blocked by an Al-Ssarah Eagles player (R)
during their BBA Open Challenge Trophy last night. Picture: BT/Yusri
Adanan

Jason Thomas

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Saturday, April 3, 2010

SOON LEE-EASYWAY and national basketball coach Kevin Reece think his team are disrespected in the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) Open Challenge Trophy. Their response was to hand out a 132-46 pounding to Al-Ssarah Eagles in their first match.

"I think everybody wanted to prove the naysayers wrong," said Reece.

"Aspirations for us are low and nobody believes us. That was our motivation, that was our mission.

"Who are the naysayers? The haters? They know who they are," added the American.

If this is parity in the league, then the other teams are in for a rough time of it if last night's 86 points drubbing was any indication.

After taking a 41-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, it was difficult to see why Reece feels his team have their detractors.

Double and triple teaming the ballhandlers, the contest was decided almost before it began.

Reecemade sure his players hustled for every ball and used his deep bench to ensure there were always fresh legs on the court.

Their control of the boards was another factor, and their ability to drive to the hoop meant most of their baskets came from inside the paint.

Starting the third quarter down 62-22, Al-Ssarah Eagles never looked like
mounting a comeback with their poor shooting and tired legs sealing
their fate.

Decimating their opponents on the fast break, Soon Lee-Easyway took a 93-33 lead heading into the final period, with Lim hitting the century mark two and a half minutes into the period.

Reece attributed the win to defence.

"Start with defence and end with defence, that's the way we are going to win games," he said.

"No disrespect to other teams if we are still playing hard in the last two
minutes, we will continue to play hard until the end. Read More...

Source: The Brunei Times

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