Photo from ASEAN Basketball League
STA. ROSA — Justin Brownlee may have had a hell of a night on Sunday, but his mind was still on his missed free throw that almost cost San Miguel Alab Pilipinas Game 1 of the 2018 ASEAN Basketball League.
“Unfortunately, I missed the free throw. I’m still knocking myself out for that,” he said.
With Mono Vampire holding a 121-119 lead in the final 4.2 seconds, Brownlee muffed his first free throw and needed to miss the second in hopes that Alab grab the offensive rebound for a chance to force overtime the hard way.
That’s what exactly happened after Brownlee intentionally missed the second and ended up getting his own miss. He couldn’t get his putback to go in but his teammate Renaldo Balkman was there for the follow up that forced extra session with 1.3 ticks left in regulation.
“It’s a team sport,” he said. “We got to depend on each other. I missed the two free throws and the putback, but Balkman was there.”
Brownlee was able to redeem himself in overtime, where he scored 10 of his ABL Finals record 46 points to steer San Miguel Alab to a 143-130 victory.
“With (Sam) Deguara fouling out, coach told us to attack the rim. Early on, we weren’t doing a good job, we were fishing for fouls, and we weren’t finishing strong. So I just knew definitely, I wanted to attack the basket and create for my team,” he said.
Coming off a confidence-boosting win, Brownlee is hopeful that San Miguel Alab continues its roll heading into Game 2 on Wednesday.
“That’s just the character of our team. We want to continue to build on that,” he said.