BANGKOK (Thailand) – Hi-Tech Basketball Club maintained their dominance over Johor Southern Tigers this Basketball Champions League Asia-East (BCLA-East) 2026 season winning the third of their head-to-head meetings in the Group Phase with a 94-84 win in front of a passionate home crowd at the Nimibutr Stadium on Saturday, but not before surviving some dramatic moments that has been the story of all the encounters between these two teams.
Hi-Tech, thus finished at the No 2 spot behind Indonesia’s Dewa United in Group A of the Group Phase and will head to the BCL Asia-East 2026 Final 6 to be placed in Group B there, along side the No 1 and No 3 teams of Group B of the Group Phase.
Johor, on the other hand, will be placed in Group A in the Final 6 along with Dewa United – a team they have beaten twice this season – and the No 2 team of Group B of Group Phase.
The Thai League champions had scraped through to win their previous two meetings this season – via Overtime at Tangerang and by the proverbial whisker at Johor – but seem to go their act together for this encounter, riding the home advantage.
Down 23-25 at the end of the first canto, Hi-Tech got their act together with a 21-2 run building the highest lead – not only this game, but also the highest difference between these two teams in any game this season.
But as has been the wont of the Malaysian champions, Johor pulled back with gumption cutting down the lead with a 11-0 run of their own and narrowed the gap just above double-digits going into the change of ends.
Johor maintained that momentum, on return, closed the gap further and even went on to get their noses ahead 63-62.
Another swing of the pendulum in the fortunes of the teams occurred giving the initiative to Hi-Tech and this time around the Thailand held their own and cruised along for their third win in six games in the Group Phase – all their three wins coming against the same rivals.
Accheaus Fields’ 19 points was the highest for Hi-Tech.
Eric Freeman, who had a six-point breakaway in Hi-Tech’s second quarter spree, finished with 18 points along with 7 rebounds.
“We wanted to win so that we can carry the momentum to the Final 6,” said Freeman in his Player of the Game post-game interview.
“We also wanted to give something back to our fans. They are the best in Asia.”
Scottie Lews and Ahmed Hill produced yet another dazzling show for Johor returning 23 and 20 points respectively.
Wong Yi Hou returned yet another top performance by a local player with a 19-point game for Johor.
“We were a little short on discipline,” rued Johor coach Danny Yong talking about the 25 turn overs his team committed.
“We need to pull back next time,” he said.
Both teams, like Dewa United, now watch the final window of the Group Phase – involving teams in Group B – the coming week at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia to find their opponents for Final 6.
FIBA