Danang Dragons pocketed their second win of the season, beating Saigon Heat 82-72 on their home turf in Đà Nẵng City on Thursday.

Trần Đăng Khoa of Danang Dragons (right) runs away from Nguyễn Huỳnh Hải of Saigon Heat during their VBA match. — Photo VBA

The defending champions are at the bottom of the ranking. They need to win all five matches in the tournament to have a chance to participating in the play-off.

The win against the Heat, who are the first professional club in Việt Nam, was the first step.

The Dragons set up a good start and maintained their dominance through the entire match. The highlight was Trần Đăng Khoa, a former Heat player.

Khoa scored 27 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

Rudolphe Joly was another outstanding player with 21 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. He was also successful in preventing Heat star Darius Lewis from scoring during the match.

Horace Nguyễn was not very impressive, but his 10 points played a role in the Dragons’ victory.

However, MVP of the match Nguyễn Hoàng Tuấn will be the player to watch out for by all other teams in upcoming matches. The young player made all Heat’s veteran players, such as Lê Ngọc Tú and Nguyễn Huỳnh Hải, work very hard, but they were unable to stop him from scoring 19 points.

The Heat on the other hand displayed an unexpected performance. Their best players kept scoring – Lewis (28 points), Việt Arnold (15 points) and Nguyễn Huỳnh Hải (11 points) -- but the others failed to shine, resulting in the loss.

There is no change in the ranking table following the match. The Dragons are at the bottom while the Heat are in third place.

They will meet again on the Heat’s home soil in HCM City on Sunday. — VNS