Photo from ABL
The last thing San Miguel Alab Pilipinas coach Jimmy Alapag wanted—especially with just a day’s break sandwiched between two tough outings—was to get dragged into a dogfight in the first of those two matches.
But that was what Alab got for three and a half periods from the Formosa Dreamers Friday night at Santa Rosa Multi-Purpose Sports Complex in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
“I felt like tonight was a great early season test for us considering we started a bit behind from the other teams and Formosa’s been off and running from the start,” said Alapag.
But the battle of two of the top teams in the current Asean Basketball League season eventually ended in an 86-72 rout as Renaldo Balkman fired 19 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, while PJ Ramos added 16 points for the Philippine club, which got significant contributions from its bench, particularly from Pao Javelona’s 11 points built around two treys.
“I think our bench played great tonight,” Alapag said. “Their energy, you know, Pao (Javelona), Josh (Urbiztondo) came in and hit shots, Brandon (Rosser) and Lo (Domingo) were great grabbing rebounds just with their energy, and I think they bought our starters enough time to finish the game.”
And it bought the team’s top guns added rest minutes as Alab tries to end the year with a victory.
“It’s a big win for us,” said Alapag, whose team is now at 3-0 (win-loss) with a game against the tough Singapore Slingers on Sunday.