W

estport Malaysia Dragons halted a brave fight by guest team, the Indonesia Warriors, who lost in the dying seconds 82 to 79 in their ASEAN Basketball League game at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday.

The Dragons’ Tiras Wade was the top scorer in the game with 32 points, followed by teammates Patrick Cabahug and Brian Williams, with 19 points apiece; Williams narrowly missed out on another double-double with only nine rebounds.

The Warriors’ Jon Smith led in scoring with 18 points, followed by Rony Gunawan’s 15 and Mario Wuysang’s 14. Steve Thomas completed a double-double in this game with 12 points and 17 rebounds.

The first half saw the two teams keeping it very close, despite the Dragons flying into an early eight-point lead in the first quarter, as reported by aseanbasketballleague.com.

Coach Purves’ timeout granted the Warriors the talk they needed, however, and they managed to close in and finish the quarter, having cut the Dragons’ lead down to just three points, with the first quarter ending at 22 to 20 for the Dragons.

The Warriors kept holding on as the halftime buzzer closed in but the Dragons still had the lead going into the second half, 43 to 40.

The second half was incredibly intense as the Warriors tried desperately to get a grip on the game as, despite the Dragons stubbornly hanging on to the lead, the point difference between the teams never went beyond 10 throughout the entire game.

With less than a minute left to play, Mario stepped up to the arc and hit a three-pointer, bringing the score to 79-81. Almost immediately, Wade was given the opportunity to put some space between his team and the Warriors when a foul by Jon Smith put him on the free-throw line.

Unfortunately, Wade managed to get one of his attempts and the Warriors found themselves controlling the ball again with only 25 seconds left on the clock.

The Warriors’ Rony and Mario once again found themselves with a chance to push the game into overtime but, unfortunately, both failed to convert crucial three-point shots and the final scoreboard read 82 to 79 for the Dragons.

The Dragons’ next game will take them to Tan Binh Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to meet
the Saigon Heat on March 11, while the Warriors will play host to the Air Asia Philippine Patriots on March 10 at The Mahaka Square in Jakarta, Indonesia.