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.