INQUIRER Sports

THERE HAS BEEN LITTLE REST FOR coach Louie Alas? wards going into Wednesday?s match, when the Philippine Patriots shoot for a championship berth against the Kuala Lumpur Dragons in the Asean Basketball League semifinals.

Just hours after soundly defeating the Dragons in the Sunday opener, the Patriots flew to Kuala Lumpur and immediately trained hard for Game 2 of their best-of-three series at 8 tonight at the Maba Stadium in Malaysia.

?We have to keep our focus,? said Alas. ?We must have a good mind-set because we?re not just up against them (Dragons), but also their crowd. We need to sustain our intensity.?

The Singapore Slingers will similarly vie for a title slot against Indonesia Satria Muda BritAma in Game 2 of their own semifinal duel at 8 p.m. today at the BritAma Arena in Jakarta.

To sweep the semifinal series, Alas said the Patriots need another collective effort from the locals led by Warren Ybañez, Jaypee Alcaraz, Jerwin Gaco and Nonoy Baclao.

?The imports of both teams usually cancel each other out, so our locals must neutralize their counterparts,? said Alas. ?We?ll probably keep the same strategy we did last Sunday, but we expect them (Dragons) to give us a hard time.?

In Game 1, though, the Patriots? American reinforcements, Gabe Freeman and Jason Dixon, held Kuala Lumpur imports Jamal Brown and Chris Kuete to a combined 11 points.

Freeman buried a team-high 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Dixon posted 13 points and 13 boards to power the Patriots to a 77-43 Game 1 rout of the Dragons last Sunday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

?They found a way to counter our zone defense so we?ve got to come up with a way to get our offense going,? Dragons coach Goh Cheng Huat told Malaysia?s New Straits Times.

The Patriots also made it difficult for Kuala Lumpur?s Filipino imports Rudy Lingganay, Roel Hugnatan and Toto Bandaying, who were all held scoreless in the first half.

?We got off to a slow start, it?s been the story of the season,? said Brown. ?The first three minutes of the game usually define the game for us.?