KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia) - Bishrelt Metal found themselves celebrating far greater glory following a successful debut in the Basketball Champions League Asia-East (BCL Asia-East) 2025 on Tuesday night.
The crew overcame a late-game scare by the hard-fighting NS Matrix to ace their lone test in Window 1 of the five-leg tourney, in the process writing history - not just for the ball club, but for an entire nation as well.
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"This win is not just for our team, but for the whole country of Mongolia."
In beating the Deers on their own home floor at the MABA Stadium, they became the first-ever Mongolian professional basketball team to win an away game in a FIBA continental club competition.
"I think this is a big step for Mongolia," said Coach Evangelos Tsepelis shortly after their 98-86 victory "Teams every year want to step up. For this season we try to play real basketball, and we have this result."
Bishrelt Metal, along with fellow The League outfit Ulaanbaatar Xac Broncos, never had a chance to do as much back in the BCL Asia Qualifiers last year after failing to advance to the Second Round.
Round 1 of the saiid tilt was held at the UG Arena in the Mongolian capital and both squads fell short of booking their tickets to Jakarta, Indonesia as the both of them won just once in their three games.
NS Matrix and Pelita Jaya Basketball eventually emerged as the two teams that secured their spots the BCL Asia inaugurals and now, those two are with Bishrelt Metal in Group A of the BCL Asia-East.
That's why Tuesday was a rematch between Bishrelt Metal and the Deers, with the former earning some sweet payback as the latter was the reason why they fell to a 0-2 hole during the 2024 Qualifiers.
But then, what most will remember, especially the Mongolian fans, was the history they made, leaving the decorated Tsepelis beaming with pride as it was also their first game outside of the country this season.
"I'm very happy with this result. I'm very proud of my players. For us this is our first game outside the country. The most important thing for us is to stay together and so we took a big win," the Greek mentor said.
It couldn't get more fitting, too, that helping Bishrelt Metal achieve such a feat were a pair of seasoned internationalists that have experienced competing in the BCL: Byron Wesley and Devon Scott.
Formerly of Kataja Basket (2016) and Lukoil Academic (2017), Wesley flirted with a triple-double with 34 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists as he came through in the clutch when the home team chopped a 20-point gap to just six.
Scott, on the other hand, finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals as the 2.06 (6'9") forward showed the same versatility he flexed with Flamengo in the BCL Americas just two years ago.
"Me and Scott, we have experience playing in BCL before so we felt comfortable out there. And down the stretch, we wanted to let our experience show," said Wesley, who scored and assisted in the team's last six points.
Wesley, however, refused to take all the credit to him and Scott, saying that it was a collective effort that enabled the crew to pull off the memorable result - one that he couldn't help but feel so proud to have been a part of.
"But it was a team effort. We had a lot of big contributions from a lot of Mongolian guys so credit to my teammates. We played like a team, everybody played unselfishly," said the 1.96 M (6'5") winger, who also played in FIBA WASL.
"This win is not just for our team, but for the whole country of Mongolia."
FIBA

Published Date:2025-03-27