艾美艾尊

Wu Chun (No 9), managing director and founder of Fitness Zone boxes out an opponent during an earlier basketball game.
Wu Chun led Palm Garden to a 83-81 win over defending champions Easyway in the Mum Bakery Cup on Wednesday




PALM Garden went against the odds to defeat Easyway in the Mum Bakery Cup on Wednesday and end the two-time defending champions' two-year undefeated run in the competition.

Easyway had a strong game in the first two quarters before Palm Garden fought back to snatch a close 83-81 win at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

"We know they are one of the best but we wanted to give it our all because the fighting spirit was there," Palm Garden's Wu Chun told The Brunei Times.

"To me, that's the most important thing, no matter if we win or lose.

"I sprained my left ankle when I was warming up before our match against KFC-MK, which is why I missed the last two games and I had to shift the pressure to my right leg throughout the match against Easyway.

"Eventually I had to come off in the fourth quarter and our players managed to come up with big shots to keep the game close.

"It was a real heart-pounding game, especially in the last 30 seconds, and I hope that the audience enjoyed it.

"I believe great teamwork was the key to winning. Eventhough most of our players haven't played together before, we're all mature enough to understand the game of basketball,"

"Mochi-Each A Cup have talented and powerful players so it'll be another huge challenge for us (in their next game)," added Wu Chun, who is also the Managing Director and founder of Fitness Zone.

National basketball and Easyway coach Kevin Reece felt that his team didn't play to their potential during their game against Palm Garden.

Though the American felt his team were deserved losers, he said he was hoping for a rematch with Palm Garden in the final.

"Streaks are always going to be broken, so for us it was the best thing to lose so we can sit back and not think we are invincible," said Reece.

"We're still focused and we have all moved on.

"I hope that Palm Garden can continue to win and hopefully they can make it to the final so we can settle it there

"We didn't play to our natural abilities, but that team would have had to play an almost perfect game to defeat us.

"When the younger guys played and got a 10 point lead they started to relax... We didn't do what we should have done so we didn't deserve to win the game," he added.

Wisdom Jade and KFC-MK who meet each other at 7:15 pm tonight have already advanced to the semi-finals from Group A.

The fate of the Group B semi-finalists will be decided today when Palm Garden go up against Mochi-Each A Cup in their second of two second-round games at 8.45pm.

Easyway, meanwhile, won their first of their second round matches 67-63 against Mochi-Each A Cup on Monday.




source: The Brunei Times