Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
FUZHOU Shiyyi Association grinded out a 70-63 victory over TK Teahouse to get their YOU.C1000 Cup title defence off to a winning start on Saturday.
Lim Liang Wei shrugged off a rough start to finish with a game-high of 21 points - 16 of them after the interval - to pace the defending champions.
Esmond Tan was the other in double figures for Fuzhou with 16 points to his name.
On the other side, Jonathan Doles topscored for TK with 18 points.
Elvin Requintin was the other in double digit scoring with 12 to a losing cause.
It was a see-saw battle most of the way in a repeat of last year's final at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
Baskets were few and far late in the closing stages of the game.
The turn came with 1:26 left to play after Lim missed a layup attempt.
However, Tan hustled for the offensive rebound for a putback that gave Fuzhou their largest lead of the game then at 67-61.
TK called a timeout immediately and Joey Dela Pena converted the next play but couldn't complete his three-point play.
It was clear TK missed Apollo Bibat, who wasn't present due to work commitments, to clean the boards.
The ensuing play saw Fuzhou grab another offensive rebound and it resulted in Lim scoring off a reverse layup with 33 seconds to play to seal the victory.
The earlier game saw Propel, the Low San Cup champions, storm to an 87-49 triumph over Bandar Rockets in Group B.
