Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TEMBURONG finished at the top of the podium of the 5.11 National Day Challenge Trophy after edging Belait A - KB 81-79 in a close match at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat last night.
Temburong captain Esmond Tan scored a game-high of 34 points while Mark See also recorded double figures scoring 17 points in the victory.
Brunei Muara A had the opportunity to land the title but squandered it after losing 77-71 to Brunei Muara B in the later match.
Belait A - KB took second place with a better head-to-head compared to Brunei Muara A.
Present as the guest of honour to award the challenge trophy, medals and prizes to the winning teams was Lim Fung, the general manager of Core Lee Enterprise.
The 5.11 National Day Challenge Trophy was the first tournament organised by the BBA following the reshuffle of its committee members in November.
The tournament served as a platform for the younger players to showcase their talent and Peter Chen, the head coach for BBA, revealed that players will be called up in the near future.
“The tournament provided competition experience for our younger players. Other than that, it also helped us (coaches) to identify a number of youth players with great potential,” said Chen.
“Our coaches and selection committee will be inviting selected players to the national squad training soon,” he added.
Committee member Wira Pori added that the association is off to a good start.
“This is our first tournament with the new cabinet members. It is a very good start for us in 2017 with this competition,” said Wira in an interview with Brusports after the event.
“We will have renovation for the court (BBA Court) soon and hopefully when it is over we will be organising more competitions,” he added.
Six teams, with the others being Tutong and Belait B -Seria competed in the one-week round-robin format competition.
