KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia) - Treveon Graham nailed the go-ahead basket as Taoyuan Pauian survived NS Matrix in double overtime, 98-95, in a pulsating start to the inaugural Basketball Champions League-Asia East 2025 witnessed by a sold-out crowd at the MABA Stadium, Monday night.
The former NBA winger cleaned up his own miss to give the Pilots the 97-95 with 8.2 seconds to go, and the crew would turn to their defense afterward to force Ting Chun-Hong to a turnover that silenced the Deers.
A split from the free throw line by Li Chia-Kang with 1.6 seconds left to play settled the final count and, most importantly, enabled the P. League+ outfit to escape after squandering a lead as big as 19 points.
Graham finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for Taoyuan, who will fly back to Chinese Taipei with high morale before buckling back down to work in preparation for Pelita Jaya on April 6, Sunday, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Game heroes: Jarrod Jones top-scored for the Pilots with 24 points and 12 rebounds with 5 assists. Julian Boyd delivered 20 points and 12 rebounds as well, as three players finished with a double-double in the win.
Both Jones and Boyd exemplified efficiency, too, as they netted a combined EFF of 54.
Lu Chun-Hsiang, on the other hand, came through with 20 points - spiked by a troika of three-pointers - alongside 3 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals as four men finished in twin digits in the nail-biting victory.
Turning point: Taoyuan appeared to have taken control of the game when they led by a dozen, 71-59, with less than five minutes in regulation, only to succumb to the hot shooting from deep by John Murry II.
The spitfire guard took matters in his own hands when Ting pulled themselves to within just five, nailing three consecutive triples from way out to give NS Matrix the 76-74 lead with 1:15 on the clock.
Both sides exchanged leads afterward but Lu nailed a tough lay-up to tie things up once more at 78-all with 14.2 seconds left, eventually sending the match to an extra period - that actually became periods.
That's because Boyd and the Pilots failed to protect the six-point lead they built with 1:09 remaining in the first overtime as Murry and Heng Yee Tong nailed one from the outside each to force another OT.
They even got pushed further into a tough position when the Deers took a 95-92 lead behind Joseph Obasa in 2OT, but luckily had Jones and then, of course, Graham to get the lead back to themselves - and for good.
They said: "Winning is really, really important. This is a short competition, only six games to qualify. We know that usually, mathematically you need to have four wins ... it's really difficult to win the three home games, and so winning away overseas is more important. The way that we won, I hope we picked up some lessons." - Iurgi Caminos, Head Coach, Taoyuan Pauian Pilots.
"Luckily we still won the game and we know that in more away games, we will have a lot of these surprises. It can be challenging mentally and physically but we accept the challenge and we need to play harder and play more with confidence." - Kuan Ta You, Taoyuan Pauian Pilots
"I thought it was a great game. The Pilots are an excellent basketball team. They came at us from all directions, inside, outside. And I thought our team competed today. And that's what I asked of them: just come out and compete, the winning will take care of itself. We go double overtime, sometimes it comes down to a little bit of luck. We ran out of luck tonight." - Felton Sealy, Head Coach, NS Matrix Deers
"I think we just ran out of time. We had our home fans to support us but we just couldn't get the win at home. It was a disappointing result for us." - Ong Wei Yong, NS Matrix Deers
FIBA