Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TK TEA House opened their Group B campaign of the YOU.C1000 Cup after hanging on for a 91-81 victory over Fateh on Saturday night.
Elvin Requintin led the way for TK with 24 points while William Ching poured in 16.
John Pascua was the other in double figures with 15 to his name in the win at the BBA court in Batu Bersurat.
On the other hand, Eric Palanca produced a game-high of 26 points to pace Fateh while Jauhali contributed 18.
The duo of Abling and Primor chipped in 12 to a losing cause.
There was no separation between the two sides in the opening half but TK could have created a gap had they knocked down their freethrows.
The game was neck and neck with both teams locked at 53-53 midway through the third quarter.
A quick spurt in the span of three minutes saw TK knock down a series of threes to go in front 65-56.
They opened up a double-digit lead for the first time after a trey by Francis Juelar with 20 seconds left before the end of the third period to make it 71-60.
Fateh put their comeback plans on the shoulders of Palanca as they got the ball down to him.
It worked as they trimmed the deficit to within 80-75 before a three-pointer by Earl Medina settled Tk’s nerves.
It remained a two-possession game down the stretch as Ching split his freethrows to make it 87-81 with 53 seconds to go.
TK managed to keep ball possession despite the miss and ran the clock before big putback by Pascua.
Fateh came up empty handed at the other end and Ching put the game to bed with a fastbreak layup with 30 seconds to go enroute to victory..
The earlier game saw Yi’s Nation run away with a 76-38 win over Unity in Group A.
The competition resumes today with defending champions Easyway taking on Chill in Group A at 7pm.
The second match pits Burger King against Patriots in Group C at 8.30pm.
