KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia) - Byron Wesley came through in dire straits to tow Bishrelt Metal past NS Matrix, 98-86, for a triumphant start to their BCL Asia-East 2025 campaign, Tuesday night at the MABA Stadium.
The well-travelled guard finished with 34 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists as he engineered big plays down the stretch that saved themselves after a 20-point lead became just six with 40.7 seconds remaining.
He intercepted Heng Yee Tong's pass near midcourt and sprinted for a two-handed jam, before turning his own board to a dime by dishing it to a streaking Dulguun Enkhtsogt to make it a 96-86 lead with 22.8 ticks left.
Wesley would also be responsible in settling the final tally with a shot from point-blank with six seconds left to play and the Mongolian side went on to author history in just their opening game of the tournament.
Bishrelt have become the first Mongolian professional basketball team to win an away game in a FIBA club competition after beating the Deers, who were coming off a 2OT loss to Taoyuan Pauian barely 24 hours ago.
NS Matrix fell to 0-2 and will look to rest and recover, first and foremost, before aiming to conclude their Window 1 campaign with a victory against Pelita Jaya Basketball on Thursday, March 27, at 20:00 local time.
Game heroes: Also delivering importantly in the W was big man Devon Scott, who delivered 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists, and added a pair of steals as well to his name.
Enkhbayasgalan Amarbayasgalan was as crucial, contributing 21 points behind an excellent 5-of-6 clip from deep as he made half of the team's threes. He also collected 5 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals, and a block.
Turning point: Batkhuyag Azzaya seemed to have kept things under control when his split pushed their lead to 92-81 with 1:27 to go in the fourth quarter, only for the home team to threaten afterward.
Wanting to replicate their furious rally against the Pilots, Joseph Obasa scored inside before Heng completed a rare three-point play to cut the gap to only 92-86 entering the game's final 40 seconds.
But Heng committed a turnover as mentioned, and that proved to be the end for a team that fought until the end despite losing star Ting Chun Hong to an apparent calf injury at the 6:46-mark of the first period.
Stats don't lie: The visiting team shot an efficient 51.4-percent from the field and much of the credit goes to their collective effort of looking for the best possible shot. They ended up finishing with 23 assists.
They said: "I'm very happy with this result. I'm very proud of my players. For us this is our first game outside the country. The most important thing for us is to stay together and so we took a big win." - Evangelos Tsepelis, Head Coach, Bishrelt Metal
"Like Coach said, I'm just really proud of my guys. The travel wasn't easy here [since] we're in the middle of the playoffs right now. We could've had a lot of excuses but we came out and we played really hard till the end. Coach did a great job with the game plan and we just played as a team." - Byron Wesley, Bishrelt Metal
"Nobody likes to lose. But we played against a really good basketball team today ... the effort was there but we're very disappointed. Because we thought we had a chance to win this game today and we came up short." - Felton Sealy, Head Coach, NS Matrix Deers
"I definitely feel like we would've had a different circumstance with Mei Mei. He's definitely one of our best defensive players and just one of our best players all around. But no excuses. We definitely gotta come back, make sure we regroup and get ready for our next game on Thursday." - John Murry II, NS Matrix Deers
FIBA