Bandar Seri Begawan - After some grueling round robin action and jostling for position in the table, the 3rd Shell Rimula Ultra Invitational Challenge Trophy Basketball Tournament 2003 has come down to the final four with two mouth-watering semifinal games in store for tonight.

Defending champions Suncity Dragons may still have ended up as number one in the standings but enter the semifinals after coming off on the wrong end of the biggest upset this year losing in their final group game against the Chop Eng Seng Keo L.Mark Lakers on Tuesday night.

But their hopes for redemption will come sooner than they could ever have expected as their semifinal opponents tonight will be none other than the Lakers, who themselves made sure of their semifinal spot in that monumental upset win.

The Lakers are now a confident side after that win and must figure that they have the defending champions in their back pockets now which just might be true if the Dragons cannot figure out a way to stop limit the deadly outside shooting that the Lakers possess.

On Tuesday night, it was Aldrin Morante who burned Suncity with a game high 32 points burying six of his nine of three-pointers.

The onus is on-the Dragons to make their adjustments against the Lakers dynamic offence but it's going to be easier said than done. At least for the Dragons, they will have their import center Lonnie Thomas back after missing that last game with an eye injury.

After going through last year's tournament unbeaten, Suncity have experienced a different campaign altogether this year and their team manager Alan Lim is not at all surprised.

"We knew before the start of the tournament that all the teams have improved tremendously and if you look at the games, I think we have been proven right.

"We still think we have a good team but the fact is talent is not going to win us the game. We are going to have play harder than we did because the Lakers will be ready for us," said Lim.

While the Lakers and Dragons will wait to do battle, the first semifinal of the night will feature an intriguing battle between the Goh Brothers Goldsmiths and SYH Tigers.

The Tigers started the tournament as favourites and with the Dragons' recent loss may well have reclaimed that tag especially with the potent offensive weapon Todd Bernard in their lineup.

The first tweeting between the two sides saw the Tigers ease their way to a comfortable victory but since then, the Goh Brothers import Corey Browne has been improving his game steadily.

Also, the sizeable Jarrod Gee joined the Goh Brothers team only after that match and his presence in the middle may alter matters a little bit.

The Goldsmiths confirmed their third place standing with a comfortable victory over the winless Komala One Stop LSL team last night and will look to continue their fine form with a win over the Tigers tonight.

The chances are that both games will be very close tonight and it is still anyone's tournament with no team really standing out this year making for what should be two very exciting games tonight. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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