Alab Pilipinas upends Meralco in tune-up

Alab Pilipinas found itself on the winner’s chair this time around after an 85-76 victory over Meralco in tune-up game Thursday at Meralco Gym.

Alab, which id winless in two games in the ASEAN Basketball League, used a strong second offensive surge in the middle quarters, outscoring the Bolts, 42-28, to build a 71-49 lead going into the fourth.

Meralco played without big men Ranidel De Ocampo, Reynel Hugnatan, and Cliff Hodge who are all nursing injuries.

Bolts head coach Norman Black admitted they experienced difficulties matching up against Alab’s frontcourt duo of Ivan Johnson and Reggie Okosa, who ran circles around Bryan Faundo and Jason Ballesteros.

“We don’t have our bigs right now so it’s very difficult,” said Black. “We’re using Bryan Faundo, and Jason Ballesteros to guard Ivan Johnson so that’s a little bit of a difficult task.”

“But once we get Ranidel back, Reynel back, Cliff Hodge back, of course we can match up better in the paint and we’ll have more athleticism in the paint.”

Okosa led Alab with 18 points while Bobby Ray Parks and Johnson added 17 and 13 points, respectively.