Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
EASYWAY took down holders Fuzhou Shiyyi Association 80-70 on Saturday to advance to the quarter-finals of the YOU.C1000 Cup at their expense.
An intense last two minutes could have seen either side progress with Easyway needing to win by a minimum of eight points.
Easyway had carried a 50-43 cushion into the decisive frame before both sides came alive offensively at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
They opened up their largest lead of the game courtesy of a layup by Jake Chong to make it 72-54 at the 3:30 mark.
Fuzhou clawed their way back and an Ahmad Termizi Hj Noordeen trey cut the deficit to 10 with just over a minute to play.
Easyway were made to earn their points through the line.
Ong Jian An split his freethrows with 55 seconds left while Lim Liang Wei scored both at the other end to make it a nine-point game.
Ong once again split his charities before Liang Wei did the same the next possession.
Fariq Affendy went one for two with 31 seconds remaining and Jonathan Lim looked to put the game to bed with a fastbreak layup with 15 seconds left to make it a 12-point gap at 79-67.
But Mizi hit a quick trigger three at the other side to set up a nail biting ending.
Fariq could only hit one of his freethrows with five seconds to play.
Without any timeouts left, Fuzhou made a quick outlet pass and got the ball to Matthew Jerickson in the corner.
He managed to get it off in time only for it to bounce off the iron leading to their exit.
Easyway had more than half of their points come from behind the arc with a total of 14 treys.
Chong topscored for Easyway with 23 points while William Ching added 17.
Jeremy Chu and Jonathan were the other two in double figures with 15 and 11 respectively in the triumph.
On the other hand, Liang Wei led all players with 25 points to his name.
Mizi added 20 while Esmond Tan finished with 18 in the defeat.
