National team accentuate the positives

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

FOR a national team which failed to make the semi-finals of the recently concluded BBA Open Challenge Trophy, the atmosphere in camp is surprisingly upbeat.

Playing under the banner of Soon Lee-Easyway, the national team opened their account with a demolition of Al-Ssarah Eagles by an 86-point margin (132-46) and then completely destroyed Ford by 120 points in a 162-42 win.

However, the good times were not going to last forever. Two lacklustre performances later, a 99-84 loss to Babes Boutique, followed by a 68-54 defeat at the hands of Ilonggo Stingers saw their confidence slump and their title aspirations end.

"My players and coaching staff are not living up to other people's expectations. This is a marathon and not a sprint. There is no easy solution, we have to start from the ground up as we only had 21 sessions before the competition," said Kevin Reece, the national basketball coach, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

"The players are still learning the system. They are slowly developing and improving but we need more positiveness instead of the negativity. Some people see the team as having a lack of talent but we have proven that we can compete against the top teams in the country," added Reece.

"We lost to the previous champions and the eventual finalists.We had the toughest group against the best teams but we didn't get blown out," continued the 49-year-old coach.

The LA Lakers fan also thanked the community for being supportive of his programme.

"The Filipino community has been very helpful and encouraging and happy to see a change in the face of basketball in the country as Brunei used to always lose," said Reece.

"There are also many in the community that are positive. We have got a lot of young talent and things are looking up."

"We're trying to build something here that wasn't done before but consistency is the biggest thing in every programme," continued the American.

However, the national basketball coach is focusing on an upcoming tournament slated for next month in the Belait district and he's hoping things will improve in time.

"We're hoping that things will get better but we know it can't be done overnight. There are no quick fixes but everything is coming along well. We'll just have to keep fighting and pick up more support along the way," added Reece.

The national basketball coach also said there is still an opportunity for players to step forward to be part of the squad.

"All the current players have made the effort to come to practice and they deserve to be on the team. But they will have to come and produce everytime to keep their spot," said the American

"The door is always open for other people to move in but it gets smaller as a tournament draws near as we'll need more practice," he concluded.

source: The Brunei Times

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Tan shows he's still the best

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Monday, April 19, 2010

ESMOND TAN once again proved that he is arguably the best cager in the Sultanate after guiding Plaza Sutera Biru to the title of the Open Category of the BBA Open Challenge Trophy on Saturday night.

A fan of LeBron James, Tan is as important to his team as King James is to the Cleveland Cavaliers in their NBA championship campaign this season. Tan was the go-to-man for Plaza Sutera Biru and his 33-point performance on Saturday helped erase a 25-point deficit for an 83-77 victory over the Ilonggo Stingers in the final.

The versatile and super-fit Tan tormented his defenders for the whole 40 minutes on Saturday with his long range shooting, ball penetration, rebounding and post-up moves.

And being the sixth man on rotation for the Barracudas in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) last season, the six footer is able to handle the ball at the point as well.

However, he played the small forward position for Plaza Sutera Biru and averaged a total of 26.1 points per game in the competition.

Tan had his best mark in the semi-final win over Babes Boutique where he scored 35 points last Tuesday.

The Bruneian put in three 28-point performances in the group stages and it was only against Urbanchic Boutique that he was in single digit scoring only five points. (His team, however, still ran out comfortable 65-40 winners in the match on March 29).

But what makes this talented cager from the Tutong district a superstar in the sport?

"He is just very good as a player. Even the best defenders here (in Brunei) can't stop him," said Fong Yeh Leong, Tan's Plaza Sutera Biru teammate, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

"Over the past two years, he has improved a lot. He used to be more on the offence, but now he's also got better on defence," added Fong.

But Fong, who is also a former Barracudas player, added that it was his leadership qualities that mattered most to his teammates.

"Some players in the team are not as good as Tan, but with him there we have more confidence going into our matches. We just want to help him in any way to get the job done," said Fong, who hails from the Belait district.

"As a captain he will always share his knowledge and give comments to help improve the team. He has got the talent and he trains really hard to get there," he added.

Kevin Reece, the national basketball coach, was also full of praise for the 25-year-old cager after watching Tan's performance on Saturday night.

"He made it possible for the team to win the championship. He's got a great set of basketball skills and it was his mindset with a great desire and passion that helped them win," said Reece.

"He could be one of the best in the country, but there are a couple more other guys who I'm also impressed with," added the Brunei coach.

However, Tan is currently not in the national squad. Reece believes that the player would have made the team if he had stepped forward.

"He should be on the team but we had given equal opportunity for everyone to step out and come for the try-outs. But he's definitely a national player," said the 49-year-old coach.

Reece still remembers when he brought the Bintulu team to the Sultanate last year for a friendly game and Tan hammered them with 38 points in the encounter.

"They won and deserved it, too. I want to congratulate them and I take my hat off to the coaching staff and the players of the team," concluded the American.

source: The Brunei Times

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PSB seal title with comeback

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Sunday, April 18, 2010

PLAZA SUTERA BIRU overcame a 25-point deficit with a tenacious defensive effort to emerge champions of the Open Category of the BBA Open Challenge Trophy scoring an 83-77 victory over the Ilonggo Stingers at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat last night.

Plaza Sutera Biru, with only eight players on their roster, had four players in double figures with Esmond Tan heading the list with a game-high of 33 points.

Fong Yeh Leong contributed 18 points while Lim Aik Hock and Jong Guo Zhang each chipped in 11 points in the triumph.

On the other hand, Cesar Asaldo topscored for the Stingers with 17 points and Ronald Arabia poured in 13 points in the loss.

The Stingers got off to a brilliant start, raining down from three-point territory. The all-Filipino side connected on six triples in the opening period with Asaldo and Lowey Jee Palma nailing three apiece.

On the other hand, Plaza Sutera Biru were luckless missing eight of their attempts for the quarter.

They were also punished with their 1-3-1 defence as the Stingers were lobbing to Rio Oblido who would dish out to the open man for the shot opening up a 30-9 advantage heading into the second stanza.

The Belait side continued where they left off starting with a trey by Nick Garcia on their first possession.

They extended their cushion to as large as 25 points with the scoreboard reading 42-17 at the midway mark.

However, a timeout by Wong Yee Chai, the head coach of Plaza Sutera Biru, with less than two minutes to go to the half worked brilliantly. Plaza Sutera Biru would switch to a man-to-man defence that saw them go on a 6-0 spurt to be down 46-29 at halftime.

Plaza Sutera Biru kept that momentum and ran amok starting the interval with a 14-0 run.

The Stingers were unable to break the man-to-man defence of the Plaza Sutera Biru team and their first points only came through free throws through Garcia after the halfway point.

Tan was tormenting the Stingers' defence by playing in the paint and he finally grabbed the lead for his team with four minutes left in the quarter on a fastbreak, at 50-48.

The Stingers were stunned by the comeback and trailed by six points at 62-56 going into the final period.

But the Filipinos were not ready to let their third championship slip away from them and came out with six unanswered points to tie the game once again.

It was a see-saw battle for both teams and it was Fong who stepped up in the period to put in 11 points.

It was down to the wire and with just 27 seconds to play Lim split his freethrows only for Tan to haul down the offensive rebound and was fouled by Reggie Malinao for two freethrows. Tan put the game away at 83-77 at that point.

"They killed our 1-3-1 defence with their two shooters from the baseline. We doubled Oblido too early but our changed to man-to-man defence worked well," said Tan, the captain of Plaza Sutera Biru, in an interview with The Brunei Times, after the match.

"Our offence was terrible and we were cold shooting the ball. We couldn't go on fastbreaks but our defence was brilliant in the second half. That won us the match," added Tan.

On what's next for the team, the former Barracudas vice-captain replied: "We are going to get more players on our team and make it more complete for future tournaments."

In the veterans (35 years old and above) category, R & T 'A' defeated SGC Palm Cafe 96-77 to lift the trophy.

Noel Grafil had a game-high of 35 points for R & T 'A' and Bernie Toledo poured in 16 points in the victory.

On the other hand, R Galvadorez scored 22 points in a losing effort.

Present as the guest of honour to hand out the prizes to the winners was Alexander Yano, the Philippine Ambassador to Brunei.

source: The Brunei Times

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