Photo from ASEAN Basketball League
STA. ROSA — If there’s a silver lining in San Miguel Alab Pilipinas’ 100-103 Game 2 defeat to Mono Vampire in the 2018 ASEAN Basketball League Finals, it’s Josh Urbiztondo’s return his old form.
The veteran sniper sizzled in the third quarter with four triples to finish the game with 14 markers to go with three assists and two rebounds on Wednesday.
“It’s very big [confidence-booster],” admitted Urbiztondo of his performance. “It’s always good to have your timing back and your rhythm back after an injury.”
The 35-year-old guard shared that he no longer feels any pain on his left hamstring since incurring the injury in San Miguel Alab’s game against Saigon Heat late in the eliminations.
“It’s OK. My timing is a lot better now. It’s tough coming back from a hamstring injury but coach Chappy Callanta has been really good with me, coach Jimmy (Alapag) has been really good with me. I feel really good out there and I feel I got my legs back,” he said.
With him playing at 100-percent, Urbiztondo is confident the Filipino squad can regain the lead in Mono Vampire’s home court with the championship duel going down to a virtual best-of-three.
“It’s back to zero. In any series, you can’t get too high off a win, you can’t get too low off a loss. It’s gonna be a dogfight now,” he said. “They stole one here at our home so we got to either steal one or steal two in their house. we got to rest our bodies and go back to the drawing board, see what we can do, what adjustments we could make and hopefully, get Game 3 in Thailand.”
San Miguel Alab Pilipinas and Mono Vampire break the deadlock on Game 3 on Saturday at Stadium 29.
“Hopefully, we just come out with intensity,” said Urbiztondo. “We’ll initiate the physicality, we’ll initiate everything especially on the road, and most importantly, we stay together. We keep our heads high and I think we’ve been doing that all year, so we’ll be alright.”