Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE duo of S D Megallon and Elvin Requintin combined for 51 points to power TK Tea House to an 86-69 win over Fitness Zone (FZ) in Group B of the YOU.C1000 Cup on Sunday night.
The result means that FZ, the 2019 Phase 1 champions, will miss out on the knockout rounds.
Megallon finished with a game-high of 26 points while Requintin put up 25, which included five shots from deep, at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
When asked on his performance, Requintin replied: "I think I was just lucky.
"But today we executed our gameplan. We played well on both ends of the floor especially on defence as we really did well to control the shooters of FZ," he added.
On the other hand, Lim Liang Wei topscored for FZ for the third straight game with 20 points while Benjamin Lim added 12, all coming from behind the arc.
TK's defence limited the trio of Aaron Goh, Alvin Goh and Esmond Tan to a combined 21 points - eight, seven and six respectively.
FZ entered the match as hot favourites and stucked their noses in front 21-19 at the end of the first quarter.
TK turned up at the defensive end and clogged the paint to ensure no easy baskets were given.
They dominated the boards and limited their opponents without a field goal for over four minutes in the second period before Benjamin knocked down a trey.
FZ were also not helped by their turnovers and TK opened up a double digit lead for the first time with over three minutes left in the opening half courtesy of a freethrow by Joey Dela Pena.
They extended it further to 13 points after a three-pointer by Requintin to see them carry a 42-29 at halftime.
FZ went with man-to-man defence but TK countered easily through Megallon, who finished with 13 points in the frame, as he slashed his way to score in the paint.
It looked like a comeback was on the cards after FZ cut the deficit to nine points with two minutes to play in the third.
But it was not to be as TK regrouped and kept their distance by double figures the rest of the way.
They easily broke through the FZ defence and led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter enroute to an emphatic win.
