KUCHING: Kuching Lord Tiger showed that they are now the team to beat after chalking up their second consecutive win in the Kuching Circuit of the 2nd Yuwang East Malaysia Basketball League at the MBKS Indoor Stadium in Pending last Saturday.
The Tigers applied the same strategy they used against the Kota Kinabalu Eagles in the opener to breach the century mark with a 114-92 win to hand the Labuan Wasps their second consecutive defeat.
In fact, five players in the team scored in double digits, with Filipino import Jessie James Bulaon Collado registering a team high of 19 points and 10 rebounds, Yiek Chai Teck 18 points and five steals, Lee Joon Kiong 16 points and two assists, Tsok Kian Hong 16 points and five assists while another Filipino import Bobby Juandale Balucanag had 15 points and four rebounds.
From the first whistle, the Tigers roared to a 11-0 lead in just three minutes and extended the lead to 39-22 in the first quarter.
At the end of second half, they were already 34 points (60-26) ahead of their opponents and maintained their momentum until the full-time to record a 22-point victory and top the table standings with four points.
On the Wasps part, Singaporean Delvin Goh had a game high of 32 points and Filipino cager Paul CC Zamar scored 30 points.
Meanwhile, Brunei Beruang Blazers fell to their first defeat when they lost 82-86 to Kota Kinabalu Eagles in the other match of the night.
The Bears had led 28-23 and 49-45 in the first two quarters with Filipino import player Gudez Lyndon Sayson posting almost half of his team points with 18 points in the bag.
The Eagles, led by imports Angel Tolentino Mendoza and former Tiger John Julien Foronda, managed to close the gap in the third quarter to tie 66-66.
As the game resumed, the Eagles switched to scoring from the three-point line for 11 points to nil and lead 79-72.
The final minutes saw Sayson missing several of his shots and Eagles making their attempts count.
Kota Kinabalu Basketball League Most Valuable Player Mendoza was the top scorer for the Eagles with 27 points, seven rebounds, four assists and five steals while teammates Foronda contributed 14 points and 16 rebounds, and local player Bobby Ng had a striking rate of 54.55 per cent to record 16 points and four steals.
The top scorers for the Bears were Sayson with 28 points, centre Escosio Hernal Razo with 14 points and five assists, and captain Benjamin Sim with 12 points and six rebounds.
Teams will play in four Circuits of the Yuwang East Malaysia Basketball League and the team that finishes top in the four circuits will automatically enter the final while the second and third best teams will fight for a final slot and the last team will be eliminated.