Photo from ABL
San Miguel Alab Pilipinas took another heartbreaking loss this time, at the hands of the Formosa Dreamers, 73-72, in the 2019 Asean Basketball League at Changhua County Stadium in Taiwan.
Formosa handed the Philippine side its second one-point defeat in three games. Alab lost to Malaysia, 72-71, on the road four days ago.
The Dreamers leaned on the clutch shooting of guard Lee Hsueh Lin, who made two pressure-packed triples inside the last 20 seconds, including the game-winning basket with only a second left.
Lee finished with seven points, three rebounds and seven assists with zero turnovers. Tevin Glass led Formosa with 24 points, nine rebounds and five steals.
Guard Ethan Alvano put Alab, who came back from as much as 15 points down in the third quarter, ahead by one, 72-71, with 6.1 ticks to go but the Filipinos just couldn’t get a stop on the other end.
Renaldo Balkman carried much of the load with 27 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks with Alab’s other Puerto Rican reinforcement PJ Ramos getting tossed in the second quarter.
Ramos was furious after a non-call despite getting cut just above his left eye. He was ejected at the 8:27 mark with Alab trailing, 24-17.
Caelan Tiongson also notched a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds while Alvano flirted with a triple-double with 11 points, eight rebounds and nine assists on top of two blocks.
The loss had Alab slipping into a first-place tie with the Macau Black Bears at 6-2.
The Dreamers, who lost to Alab, 86-72, in their first meeting this season in Sta. Rosa Laguna, stopped a two-game slide and improved to 8-4.
