TANGERANG (Indonesia) – Hi-Tech Basketball Club unleashed a furious Overtime flurry and forced their way to a 90-80 win thus thwarting Johor Southern Tigers’ determined bid for a triumphant BCL Asia-East debut in the Group A encounter at the Dewa United Arena on Saturday night.
Coming off an underwhelming 77-97 defeat to home team Dewa United on Friday, the Basketball Thai League champions fought off some similar ghosts and ensured they didn’t return empty-handed from the Indonesian leg of the pan regional competition that leads to the top two teams qualifying for BCL Asia.
Having fought from their backs to the wall for the better part of the first three quarters, Southern Tigers came to grips in the final forcing an even-keeled encounter.
Ahmed Hill had the opportunity to seal the issue in regulation time for the Malaysian outfit, but his long-ranger in the dying moments fell short of the mark extending the game into the first Overtime of the season. Hill would go on to finish with a consolation game-high 24 points.
Freddie Lish, came off the bench, fired in a long ranger and opened the scoring for Hi-Tech in the Overtime. Eric Freeman took charge thence and with very useful support from Chanatip Jakrawan, Hi-Tech maintained control of the scoreboard to eke out the win.
Freeman, named Player of the Game, accounted for 11 of his 21 points and two of his 13 rebounds for the game during the Overtime. Lish returned 17 points.
Former Iranian international Aaron Geramipoor fouled out midway through the fourth quarter having accounted a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards, leaving Southern Tigers short on size to counter the Freeman-Lish barrage.
We took advantage of the mismatches and had very good readings of the play. This was the key to our success in the Overtime,
“We got outrebounded a little bit, but overall, it was an even game,” said Scottie Lewis who held fort for Southern Tigers with an 18-point game.
“I think we needed a little bit more effort. We needed to get the right play at the right time, like Ahmed’s three-pointer in the fourth. We just need to get that going,” he said.
Lewis’ wishes would be tested less than 24 hours from now when the Malaysia League champions line up against home team Dewa United at 19:00 on Sunday.
FIBA