Brachon Griffin (22) sealed the victory for the Catfish against the Ho Chi Minh City Wings. Photo courtesy of VBA

HCM CITY — The match between the Ho Chi Minh City Wings and the Cantho Catfish was extremely exciting as the team that won this match will be able to keep its hope of reaching the VBA 2023 playoffs.

The match took place on Friday night at Hồ Xuân Hương Gymnasium, HCM City.

Before the match, the away team had a big change on the offensive front when Finals MVP VBA 2020 Joshua Keyes replaced DeAngelo Hamilton.

With this quality player, the Catfish quickly scored the first points and controlled most of the first two quarters.

The visitors had a very successful day shooting from beyond the three-point line as they successfully sank nine out of 15 three-pointers to help the Catfish get an 11-point lead (44-55) before the break.

After the break, both teams continued to play effectively. Each team added 20 points in this quarter, and the score was 64-75.

Opening the final quarter, the Wings' big man, Yevgen Sakhniuk, made two free throws before Trung Trần made a three-pointer from the corner to narrow the lead to six points.

When the match had one minute left, Jeremy Smith helped the home team continue to narrow the lead to only three points (89-92).

The Catfish did not want to let victory slip away in the final seconds like the previous two games.

Brachon Griffin of the guests made a perfect layup to increase the lead for the Catfish, followed by three out of four free throws by Joshua Keyes, which helped the Catfish get an important victory (95-89) to raise hopes for the playoffs.

With this victory, the Catfish rose to fifth place.

Brachon Griffin won the Player of the Game award with 32 points and 8 assists. Joshua Keyes had a great opening match with 29 points and 18 rebounds. VNS