NO WAY UP: Sarawak Firehorse’s Francis Loh (left) gets fouled by a Farmochem player in his attempt to score during the second leg of MNBL semi-final match on Saturday. Sarawak won 83-81 but were denied of the final ticket as they lost to Farmochem by 15 points on aggregate over the two legs of the semi final. — Photo by Davidson Kho
KUCHING: For the second consecutive year, Sarawak Firehorse failed to reach the final of the Malaysian National Basketball League (MNBL).
Although they managed to beat Farmochem 83-81 in the second leg of the semi-final on Saturday, they failed to secure the final ticket as Farmochem beat them 77-60 on Friday, which is a 17-point difference.
Farmochem will now take on surprise package Kelantan Warriors who upstaged the Westports Malaysia Dragons 75-62 also in the second leg semi-final, in the final.
In the Firehorse- Farmochem match, it was a close fight in the first quarter where Warriors ended up 23-20 in the lead.
Firehorses then galloped into full gear in the second quarter to momentarily lead 31-28 before surrendering the lead 41-48 at half-time.
After the breather, Farmochem remained in control of the match and Chris was unstoppable, personally scoring 15 points to help his team retain the lead 65-64 at end of third quarter.
Firehorses again gave chase in the final quarter where they managed to level the score 73-73 and went on to win by two points.
Chris Daniel Kuete Lontchi, who won the Most Valuable Player award in the preliminary rounds, was the top scorer for Farmochem with an impressive score of 31 points and 15 rebounds while Ooi Ban Sin contributed 22 points.
On the other hand, Kings led the scoring chart with 23 points and 9 rebounds, followed by Benson Andrew Lee Jr with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Ma Chee Kheun had 10 points and Francis Loh Hoo Won, 10 points.