THEY WON ONE TITLE: The Miri teams celebrating their men’s title.
THEY WON THE OTHER: The Kuching teams celebrating their successful defence of their women’s title. — Photos by Teo Chi Wei
KUCHING: Kuching’s dream of retaining their men’s crown in the 44th Sarawak Inter-Division Open basketball championships was dashed when they lost 78-84 to Miri at SMK Catholic stadium in Sibu last Sunday.
They had opened their campaign convincingly by whipping Sarikei 120-51 and followed that up with a 76-72 win over Sibu and a 71-56 victory over Bintulu.
However, in the final league game, the Kuching men finally found their Miri counterparts, anchored by Malaysian National Basketball League (MNBL) campaigners Ma Chee Khiun and Lau Bik Ing, too hot to handle.
Ma was the top scorer for his team with 22 points while the top scorer for Kuching was another MNBL cager Chai Chze Hian who had 30 points and five rebounds.
In the five-team men’s competition, Kuching, Sibu and Miri had all registered three wins and one defeat from four games but it was Miri who were declared champions on points difference.
It was also Miri’s first victory in the inter-divisional meet after a lapse of more than 20 years.
Sibu came in third after registering a 106-63 win over Bintulu in their final league game.
Fourth and fifth were Bintulu and Sarikei respectively.
Meanwhile, Kuching successfully retained their women’s title after beating all their opponents in the league competition.
They opened their title defence by thrashing Sibu 76-18, followed by beating Miri 71-42 and running riot over Sarikei with a 109-42 scoreline.
At the end of the championship, the Sarawak Basketball Association announced the initial list of selected players that included 24 men and 22 women.
The finalised squads will compete in the 55th Agong’s Cup in Tawau, Sabah in the middle of August.