Pro-laden Tiger roars

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KUCHING: The Kuching Open’s play-offs started yesterday evening at the MBKS Pending Indoor Stadium with highly fancied Tiger Lord showing their class with an easy win in the opener.

With three Malaysian national players in the line-up, Tiger’s player-coach Chai Chze Hian easily led his team to a 98-64 win over Kim Bay.

Tiger, with nationals  Guganeswaran Batumalai, John Ng and Chin Tzin Shien, quickly took the lead and ended the first quarter leading 28-15.

They continued plying on the pressure in the second quarter scoring 29 points while limiting player-coach Sim Kim Soon’s Kim Bay to only six points.

With their big 36 points lead going into the third quarter, Tiger could have taken it easy but they were relentless.

They scored another 23 points while only allowing former national player Sim’s Kim Bay to score 18 points.

Kim Bay finally outscored Tiger in the last quarter 18-24 but the issue was already settled by then.

In the second match, D & C Sentosa defeated community team Sungai Apong BA (SABA) 73-65.

Group A winners SABA actually led for most of the match, leading 27-23 after the first quarter and ended the first half leading 42-40.

D & C, winners of Group B, finally took the lead in the third quarter, scoring 16 to SABA’s 12.

They maintained their slim lead to eke out a comfortable eight point win.

The women’s half of the draw saw finalist Pest finish their group matches with a win over CHMS No 1.

The finalist, laden with some of the Division’s top female players, actually fell behind in the first quarter.

CHMS No 1 entered the match with a winless 0-2 record and started off quite brilliantly to earn themselves a 14-10 lead.

However, they were brought back to reality in the second quarter when Pest finally find their stride and scored 19 points while only allowing the high-schoolers a solitary basket.

With a 29-16 lead upon resumption, Pest again seemed to lose their focus only scoring six points to CHMS No 1’s eight points.

Pest finally got going again in the fourth period to score 25 points while allowing only three points and winning the match 60-27.

Coach Voon Soon Liong was not too pleased with his team’s mixed performance, despite winning the group round with a perfect 3-0 record.

“We just haven’t had enough practice time,” he said.

He is already looking ahead to the finals against group runner Wing Chen whom they beat earlier.

“I think we will use our fitness to advantage,” he said.