Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
EASYWAY advanced to the final of the YOU.C1000 Cup after taking down Fateh in the semi-final on Wednesday night.
They will face TK Tea House, who dispatched Yi's Nation 83-70 in the other last-four matchup, in the final on Saturday night.
American Decorey Jones was limited to only nine points in the encounter but captain Ben Sim stepped up with a game-high of 24 points, including five treys, to lead Easyway.
Jake Chong added 18 points while the pair of Ong Jian An and Andy Sim poured in 10 apiece in the win.
On the other hand, Hans Abling topscored for Fateh with 16 points while Roger Pasag added 15.
Darrel Dela Cruz was the other in double figures with 13 to a losing cause.
It was mostly Easyway from tipoff as they quickly built up a double digit lead at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
Fateh were caught napping on defence on several occasions as Easyway capitalised to open up a 17-point advantage in the opening frame.
Turnovers also didn't help their cause as Easyway stayed in front 28-15 going into the second period.
Easyway missed a handful of easy baskets allowing Fateh to cut the deficit.
It was down to eight after a putback basket by Fullado midway through at 34-26.
Fateh resorted to man-to-man defence which saw Easyway without a field goal for three minutes until a three-pointer by Ben with three minutes to the interval.
It sparked a 10-2 run to finish the half which included a bizarre moment when Pasag shot into his own hoop before the buzzer sounded to put Easyway up 44-28.
Fateh struggled to keep up in the third as they turned the ball over allowing Easyway to score on the break.
The lead ballooned to over 20 points but Fateh managed to get a good run in to close the gap to 63-45 going into the final stanza.
Fateh didn't back down and Easyway did them a favour by missing a handful of baskets and turning the rock over.
They got to within 11 points of Easyway before Ben connected on a three-pointer to stop the bleeding.
But it was simply not to be as Fateh ran out of gas and couldn't get anything going late on to see Easyway close out for the win.
