Alab Pilipinas falls to Singapore at home

Alab Pilipinas’ Justin Brownlee. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Singapore spoiled Alab Pilipinas’ return to home and escaped with a 90-80 victory in the ASEAN Basketball League Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

The Slingers, who avenged their 89-80 loss in Singapore, improved to 4-5 while also stopping Alab’s winning run at two.

The game took a controversial turn when Xavier Alexander escaped with a traveling violation before hitting a jumper with 2:02 left in the game to give Singapore an 84-76 lead.

Alexander’s late travel drew the ire of Alab head coach Jimmy Alapag who went at it with the game officials before getting called with the technical foul 1:52 remaining in the game.

AJ Mandani then extinguished Alab’s fire with a corner triple off Mitchell Folkoff with 1:02 left that put Singapore ahead, 88-76.

Singapore enjoyed a three-pronged attack from Chris Charles, Mandani, and Alexander ,who all had at least 20 points to lead the Slingers.

Charles finished with a game-high 29 points with 15 rebounds while Mandani added 23 points.

Alexander almost completed a triple-double with 20 points, nine rebounds, nine assists, with five steals.

Renaldo Balkman led Alab with 24 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks while Justin Brownlee had a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double.

The Filipinos dropped to 3-4 despite getting a huge boost from the home crowd.