Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
AMARON hung on to dethrone D'Barkadz 91-85 in a thrilling quarter-final clash in the YOU.C1000 Cup on Tuesday.
They will next face Yuni-ku in the second semi-finals on Friday at 8.30pm.
Christopher Chiew, who had a good outing with a team-high of 20 points, gave Amaron their the largest of the match at 12 midway in the fourth period.
D'Barkadz took a timeout to score five straight and Jomarie Corpuz started heating up from the field at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
However, Amaron took advantage of the D'Barkadz defence without a rim protector after Gassim Elsheikh picked up his second technical foul early in the stanza.
They had good finds down low to score in the paint.
Corpuz then hit a trey to make it 87-83 with just over a minute to go.
Esmond Tan then found Yeo Chun Kiat down low but his effort went in and out.
D'Barkadz went on the attack and got their shot to fall after two offensive rebounds at the other end to make it 87-85 with 32 seconds left.
However, a gap in their full court man-to-man press left Yeo unmarked as he received a long inbounds pass for an easy layup.
Corpuz then missed a three-pointer at the other end and Tan was fouled with 16.9s left.
He sank both freethrows for his tally of 15 to put the game to bed and send his side into the last-four.
Mak Chia Wee and Marcus Lim for all of Amaron's three-pointers as they knocked down five treys each to finish with 16 and 15 points respectively.
On the other side, Corpuz notched a game-high of 32 points.
Absar Amin poured in 19 and Jonathan Doles added 13.
Patrick Rubillar was the other in double figures with 12 in the defeat.
It was evenly matched in the opening 10 minutes with D'Barkadz sticking their noses in front 20-18.
Like every other match in this tournament, Corpuz faced a box-one defence but earned his points from the line.
Amaron opened up a 34-28 lead midway through the second period after back-to-back treys courtesy of Marcus.
Amaron managed to go in front by many as 10 points.
Absar was fouled by Yeo at the buzzer taking a three but the former only hit one freethrow to bring the score to 51-42 at halftime.
D'Barkadz got to within a single basket after a 7-0 run but Amaron stepped up their intensity on defence most notably Lim Aik Hock.
He picked up a steal for an easy deuce just before the end to put Amaron back up 66-58 going into the final frame.
