Hanoi Buffaloes end Saigon Heat winning streak. Photo courtesy of VBA

By Xuân Đăng

HCM CITY – The Hanoi Buffaloes became the first team to win against the defending champion Saigon Heat.

Before match, the Buffaloes announced they would replace Eric Frederick with Ruot Monyyong at centre.

With an impressive height of 2.08 metres, this player was expected to significantly upgrade the competitiveness in paint area for the guests.

On the side of the Heat, the defending champion still used their core players that brought them their five-game winning streak.

In the first quarter, the main lineup of the Heat quickly scored points as usual, while Monyyong of the Buffaloes quickly proved his value with flexible defense.

With two three-pointers from the duo of Nguyễn Tiến Dương and Đinh Tiến Công, the visitor caught up with their rivals 17-19.

In the second quarter, the Heat sped up their play with two consecutive three-pointers from Dư Minh An and Nguyễn Phúc Vinh from the corner.

Creating a ten-point lead in the second quarter, the red team had a great opportunity to increase the lead when the duo of the Buffaloes, Ruot Monyyong and Hassan Thomas, left the court. However, the home team could not take advantage of it.

On the contrary, taking advantage of the Heat's turnovers, the Buffaloes kept the score close at 32-35 before the break.

After the break, Devin Peterson and Hassan Thomas took turns scoring to help the Buffaloes created a seven-point lead of 52-45 against the defending champion.

The poor form of the Heat continued as their scoring leader Jevonnie Scott and his teammates could not find the basket nor control the game tempo.

Going into the last quarter, Jevonnie Scott still couldn't find himself. Many turnovers caused the offensive rhythm of "Mr. 30" to be torn apart.

Seizing this opportunity, Peterson scored to raise the lead to double digits, while Ruot Monyyong still played good inside the paint area.

In the end, after a poor performance at home, the Heat received its first defeat with a result of 60-78.

Ruot Monyyong, the new defensive star of the Buffaloes, was named Player of the Game with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

"I think my performance today was quite good. I still need more time to regain my form because this is my first game in a few months," Ruot shared.

In this match, with the presence of the new defensive star of the Buffaloes, the Heat chose to score mostly from the three-point line but it was not successful with an efficiency of only 24 per cent (nine of 37).

In addition, the home team also lost the ball 18 times, almost twice that of the opponent's ten times.

With this result, the position of the two teams in the standings remains the same. Accordingly, the Heat continue to reign in first place, while the Buffaloes hold fourth place.

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