Beijing Fly Dragons clinch Seri Mutiara Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: The Beijing Fly Dragons took flight in the fourth quarter to emerge champions in the third Seri Mutiara Cup basketball invitational.

With the red-hot shooting form of Taiwanese Yang Chin-min and excellent playmaking by Stephon Marbury, the Chinese club outplayed Croatia’s KK Split for an 80-73 win at the Maba Stadium yesterday.

Split came into final on the back of Filip Najev’s buzzer-beating three-pointer which saw them claim a 79-76 win over Changwon LG Sakers of South Korea in the semi-finals on Saturday.

And the Croatians kept that momentum going as they held the Dragons to 16-all in the first quarter before leading 40-35 at halftime.

And the experience of two-time NBA All-Star Marbury, former NBA cager Shavlik Randolph and Jordanian Zaid Abbas provided the cutting edge in the closing stages as they held on for a seven-point win.

But the Most Valuable Player award was deservedly won by the 33-year-old Chin-min, who also finished with 21 points. It was his second straight high-scoring game following his 25-point performance in the 96-93 win over Malaysia’s NS Matrix in the semi-finals.

“I may have won the MVP award but I didn’t win the championship single-handedly,” said Chin-min.

In the third-placing playoff, the Sakers outgunned Matrix 103-82.