In a keenly fought contest the SBL All Star Western Alphablast Tigers have accounted for the Malaysian National team 88-68 in their first game of the Malaysian International Basketball Championship.

The Malaysian team went into the game as favourites with a large portion of the group part of the KL Dragons who play in the ABL.

The game started off very evenly with both teams trying to establish the ascendancy. Matt Wundenburg and Travis Moore were toiling hard inside against some big opponents. The Tigers caught fire from long range late to lead by 13 by the end of the first quarter.

The run was started after ex-Goldfields Giant Mark Heron was injected into the game and he made some huge offensive and defensive plays. Wildcat squad member Everard Bartlett, new Willetton Tiger Rob Cassir and Seb Salinas hit shots from deep and some excellent team defense got the Tigers rolling and they were never headed from there.

The second quarter saw the Tigers continue their assault from the perimeter and some extended pressure defence saw the lead extend to as much as 26 points before the half.

In a team effort, Bartlett top scored for Tigers with 25 points at 57% from the field. Salinas scored 13 points and had 7 rebounds and 5 assists and evergreen Travis Moore had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Adam Nener and Mitchell Clarke controlled the tempo throughout as well as the Tigers ran away with the victory.

The Tigers play the Chinese Taipei team on Friday who beat a Chinese NBL team by 50 points on Day 1.