22th of September 2017, another holiday for fellow Malaysian but basketball still goes on as Urban Basketball League (UBL) brings you to MABA 6th Floor Basketball Court where we have Malaysia Media Basketball Club (MMBC) hosting Kuala Lumpur Griffin!
Malaysia Media Basketball Club (MMBC) was founded in 2005 by a group of basketball lovers from several media companies, mainly reporters. Initially, the team took part in various tournaments in Klang Valley mainly on “entertaining” basis, enjoying and being a part the basketball community for the past 10 years. Ever since last year, MMBC has transformed into a competitive basketball team where they have attracted several new bloods and young talents into their team, and able to emerge as a notable competitive team in Klang Valley.
Kuala Lumpur Griffin (Griffin) is coached by Mr Sim Hon Seng, former FIBA international referee had subsequently switched to coaching role and lead Kuala Lumpur junior men team into 2 times champion at Malaysia National Under 17 Championship and 3 times champion at Malaysia National Under 15 Championship in the past 3 years. A successful track record has enable Mr Sim to once again gather the U15 and U17 champion players to challenge brand new grassroots Urban Basketball League (UBL). As mentioned before, the team were consisted of 2015-2018 under 15 and under 17 players, where 6 of them had represented Malaysia National Youth Team to various FIBA international tournaments.
Both team were playing at relatively fast pace since the opening quarter, most of the points came from fast break points off turnover. MMBC Wun Jun Wei (67) hit buzzer beater at end of first quarter to even up the score at 14-14.
MMBC Tong Wen Keong (36) and no Phan Wee Chen (41), former national player and former national junior player hit 2 threes to light up second quarter. Towards the end of the quarter, former national junior player Rosli Syaruh Ridzuan from Griffin hits an “and one”, but missed the free throw, game ties 27-27.Griffin Ng Zhen Yu (6) hits a mid-range jump shoot to give KL griffin a 2 points lead into half time at the last minute.
Third quarter started rather sloppy, both team were maintaining the fast rhythm but unable to convert attempts over attempts into points. At the seventh minute of the third quarter, where the tempo of the game has lean towards MMBC when Tong Wen Keong (35), Phan Wee Chen (41) and Ahmed A.G Dalibi (1) hits 3 consecutive three pointers to extend the lead to 43-39. However, Griffin Soong Kah An, the former captain of 2016 Malaysia Junior team, stepped up to score 3 straight basket and close the quarter strong with a lead 45-48.
Comes to the final quarter of the game, both team were playing so conscious that no basket were scored in the first 2 mins,. At the 3rd min of the quarter, Griffin Ng Zhen Yu (6) scored 3 basket consecutively giving Griffin the first 2 digit lead of the game, 45-57. Griffin maintaining the lead by not giving any easy basket to MMBC, spreading the court offensively and patiently waiting for fast break opportunity. Griffin was able to close the game strong by hitting fast break over fast break, and effectively snatched the W from MMBC at 54-71 final score.
The match-up of these 2 teams is pretty even other than the significant drop of stamina of MMBC at the 4th quarter, where eventually cost them the game. Griffin comes out ahead by having 12 players rotating constantly pushing MMBC players stamina to the maximum. Griffin Zhen Yu Ng (6) lead all scorer with 17 points, followed by double-double performance by Soong Kah Ann and Rosli Syaruh Ridzuan at 14 points 10 rebounds and 10 points 11 rebounds respectively. Ooi Say Fung (31) and Phan Wee Chen (41) from MMBC combine for 29 points and 14 rebounds but was not sufficient to protect their home ground.
Sponsored and Presented by “Pusat Pakaian Hari Hari”, Urban Basketball League is the first basketball league in Malaysia that plays at 10 different venues, injecting the brand new concept “Home and Away Basketball Competition System” by FIBA into Klang Valley basketball community, bringing the highest level grass root basketball game to your door step. Kuala Lumpur Basketball Association (KLBA), the organizer of UBL would like to express thanks and appreciation to “Pusat Pakaian Hari Hari” for its effort to promote grass root basketball to the every corner of Klang Valley.
