Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
LITTLE Wonder Enterprise completed a sweep of Group A in the GRÂND Veteran Basketball Tournament after grinding out an 81-79 overtime victory over Hawks last night.
The Hawks needed a win to progress into the semi-finals after Concepts 3B/3G swept aside TK Tea House Restaurant B 116-80 in the earlier match.
Liu Kun Shyong of Llittle Wonder goes for a layup against Hawks. Picture: Yee Chun Leong
Liu Kun Shyong poured in 20 points to pace Little Wonder while Tony Tan added 13. The duo of Lim Boon Teck and Jimmy Lim also got in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively in the triumph.
On the other side, most of the offence for the Hawks was done by the backcourt with Payay notching 20 points and Sanchez adding 18 points.
Marina contributed 16 points while Bernabe chipped in 12 to a losing cause.
It was a close and physical encounter throughout resulting in the game deadlocked at 48-48 going into the final quarter at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
Little Wonder then started with a 5-0 run and stayed ahead 59-53 midway through the deciding frame.
Hawks applied full court pressure then for two quick baskets forcing their opponents to take a timeout.
Tony Tan (C) in between two Hawks defenders. Picture: Yee Chun Leong
It worked a charm with Boon Teck hitting back-to-back treys to put Little Wonder in the driving seat.
They ran the clock each time they had the ball but it was down to a one possession game after Payay hit a three-pointer to make it 67-64 with 40 seconds left.
Lim Fung was sent to the line and he split his freethrows to make it a two-possession game.
However, things took a turn after Sanchez converted a layup and Payay stole the inbounds pass and was fouled.
He would tie things up at 68-68 from the line with 23 seconds left.
At the other end, Tan scored a layup plus the foul 10 seconds later but couldn’t convert from the penalty.
It looked over when Sanchez missed his runner at the other end but Payay was there to pick up the offensive rebound to score at the buzzer to force overtime.
Sanchez of Hawks takes a shot against the Little Wonder defence. Picture: Yee Chun Leong
It was 72-72 two minutes into the extra period before Little Wonder took control with a 6-0 run.
Liu then put the game to bed after converting two from the charity stripe with seven seconds left to make it 80-76 which made Marina’s three-pointer at the other end a mere consolation.
The semi-finals will be contested on Sunday and Group B will be determined tonight with the final two group matches.
Linktech will take on Digimark at 7pm followed by a meeting between Fitness Zone and TK Tea House Restaurant A at 8.30pm.
