Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
CLEANWASH Laundry barged into the win column in Group A of the YOU.C1000 Cup after holding off Menglait Basketball Club 70-61 last night.
Jonathan Lim led the way in the victory with 14 points while the duo of Chris Chiew (pic) and Chong Kah Hou added 13 points apiece.
Adrian Wallace was the other in double figures for Cleanwash with 11 to his name.
On the other side, the pair of A Jauhali and Danilo Felicilda had matching game-highs of 16 points.
Louie Escopete was the other in double figures for Menglait with 12 to a losing cause.
Cleanwash, who boast a much younger side, went with man-to-man defence - something that they kept up for the entire game - and proved to be the difference against their much older opponents.
Jonathan Lim (L) topscored for Cleanwash in the victory over Menglait. Picture: Yee Chun Leong
With Cleanwash carrying a 38-31 lead into halftime, Menglait came out the better team after the interval as they picked up at the defensive end to cut the deficit to two just two minutes in.
Cleanwash were forced to call a timeout and it worked as they scored nine unanswered points the next three minutes.
Their defence continued to stifle their opponents and eventually built their lead to as large as 16 points before Menglait closed to within 59-46 going into the final period.
Cleanwash struggled offensively to start the fourth quarter as they slowed the tempo - something that didn’t work in their favour.
They were fortunate Menglait as were out of steam and couldn’t get their shots to fall.
Despite a game-high of 16 points by Danilo Felicilda (L), it was not enough to prevent Menglait from defeat. Pictrure: Yee Chun Leong
Cleanwash only made their first field goal four minutes into the frame after Lim knocked down a jumper.
It sparked an 9-0 run which ended with a trey by Chiew to make it 68-50 with just over 4 minutes to play enroute to victory.
The earlier game saw Teo & Sons cruise to a 106-68 victory over Tutong Basketball.
The tournament will resume tonight with more Group A matches.
Menglait will be up against Teo & Sons at 7.15pm while the battle between YTE and Tutong Basketball will follow right after.
