HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s Saigon Heat are gearing up to defeat Kaohsiung Truth of Chinese Taipei in the elimination round of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) on Feb 11.

The match will be played at the CIS Arena in HCM City.

It is an important game for the Heat as the team must beat the Truth to rank in the event’s top four and have a chance to reach the play-off round.

At present, the Heat have two wins and seven losses. They rank sixth, which is the bottom of the rankings. Meanwhile, the Truth rank fourth with four wins and seven losses.

Both teams are coming off respective wins heading into this match-up, which makes the faceoff even more exciting.

The Truth have had a successful home run, winning two of their three games against the Heat, 85-71, and defeating Westports Malaysia, 94-86, to strengthen their hold on the fourth spot in the team standings.

The Heat, on the other hand, recorded a momentous win — 72-65 — over Alab Pilipinas last weekend to likewise gain more steam moving forward.

It was only the second win for the Vietnamese side, but more importantly, it brought them back in the race for the fourth spot in the league.

“It is a huge win for the team’s confidence. We always knew we can compete against these teams. Coming off the Kaohsiung Truth game on February 1 to (the Alab) game, we faced a lot of adversity,” Stefan Nguyễn of the Heat said on the tournament’s official website.

“The funny thing is we always knew we could come back. We always had that feeling. We just haven’t showed it. Coming into the season 1-7, feeling like everything was against us, that actually fueled us,” Nguyễn added.

Heat’s coach Anthony Garbelotto said if his team maintain their performance like they did in the match against the Alab Pilipinas, they will defeat the Truth. — VNS