KUCHING: D Stranger bagged both the men’s and women’s titles at the Kuching Division Basketball Championship finals at Kota Sentosa Basketball Association stadium on Tuesday night.
The victorious D Stranger men’s and women’s teams posing for a group photograph after the prize presentation. — Photo by Davidson Kho
The men’s final was a close fight with the battle going to the final quarter before D Stranger tamed Lord Tiger A 73-63.
The first quarter saw Lord Tiger A applying the height strategy and with the strong combination of Yap Chai Teck, Voon Yew Ting and Chai Chze Hian, they scored randomly from all corners of the court. D Stranger were no pushovers and the duo of Chia Kah Siang and Liew Yik Lung answered with the majority of the points to tie Lord Tiger A 22-22.
It was the same story in the second quarter where both teams matched point for point but D Stranger ended with a slight edge at half-time (34-33).
They continued to slowly build up their lead to 58-54 in the third quarter and Lord Tiger A could just not match the pace and eventually lost by ten points.
Finishing in third place were NHN Prudential who edged D Stranger White 64-61 on Monday.
In the women’s final, D Stranger, who were powered by national cager Wong Mee Khiun, raced to a 17-13 lead over GT Industries in the first quarter.
They pulled further ahead with 38-26 in the second quarter but committed numerous errors in the third quarter to allow their opponents to reduce the gap to 55-40.
D Stranger went into full gear in the final quarter and simply overpowered GT Industries 80-56 to lift the title.
Boon Ting Food Products, who fared quite poorly in the league matches, managed to beat Central Light Industries 57-33 in the placing play-off to finish third.
At the end of the competition, KDBA also announced the initial selection list of 32 men and 37 women for the Kuching team which will compete in the Sarawak Inter-Division championship next month. They are to report to KDBA coaching board chairman Ong Seng Huat at Sarawak Basketball Association training stadium at Seng Goon Garden, Hui Sing from 6pm to 10pm today for the training.
Event sponsor Simon Wong Vui Khiong, who is also vice president of the Kuching Division Basketball Association (KDBA), gave away the prizes.