Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
EASYWAY coach Ryan Yusof credited his side's defence that turned the tides in the third period against Fitness Zone.
After holding onto a 39-36 lead at halftime, Easyway outscored their opponents 31-19 in the 10-minute frame to pull away.
"I think it all came full circle when we started playing our game and got into our chemistry of basketball," said Ryan in an interview with BruSports News after the game.
"Main thing that turned it around for us was the defensive intensity was on point and the players got into it," he added.
"It was like clockwork after that from good defence leading to offence and being aggressive with the drives
"The players did what they were supposed to do and played good strong basketball," he continued.
When asked on who was the man of the match, Ryan replied: "That is tough question as I believe everybody deserved to be player of the match.
"But if I had to choose one person then I would give it to Jake Chong as he did it at both ends of the floor and came up big in the third quarter when we started pulling away," he added.
On the other hand, Fitness Zone coach Justin Howard is looking at the bigger picture despite the defeat.
"They came out in the second half strongly and we didn't have the same defensive intensity as in the first half," said Howard.
"But overall I'm happy with the team's performance and proud of them.
"We have been working more and I've been stressing on the importance of defence," he added.
"This is not the final game and at the end of the day we will learn about this game and ourselves," concluded the American.
