Patriots slay Dragons, gain tie for ABL lead

Nakiea Miller scores a double-double for the Patriots. Photo from the aseanbasketballleague.com

MANILA, Philippines— Anthony Johnson got away with too many slams as the AirAsia Philippine Patriots coasted past Westports Malaysia, 86-72, Sunday night at the Ynares Sports Arena and grabbed a share of the lead in the Asean Basketball League.

Johnson topscored anew with 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Patriots, who set the tone for the blowout with a scoring flurry late in the first half.

Nakiea Miller also came through with 21 points and 15 boards as the Patriots’ reinforcements outclassed their Dragons counterpart Brian Williams and Tiras Wade.

Al Vergara emerged as the top local performer anew for the Patriots, dishing out a game-high 12 assists to go with 13 markers.

“The key to this game was Anthony Johnson limiting Wade to less than his average numbers,” said coach Glenn Capacio after the Patriots streaked to a third straight triumph and joined the Singapore Slingers on top at 4-1.

A 15-2 scoring blitz in the last three minutes of the first half gave the team of Harbour Centre president-CEO MIke Cojuangco a 17-point buffer, 46-29, before a 19-5 start in the third quarter propped the Patriots up by as many as 31 points, 65-34.

Meanwhile, San Miguel coach Bobby Parks said his Beermen, who are in the middle of the pack at 3-2, need to improve more to justify their billing as title favorites after ruling a preseason tournament in Bangkok last December.

“When we won in the preseason. I think some of our guys thought we’re better than we are,” said Parks, adding that the Beermen are lucky they still have a chance to iron out the kinks in the team this early.

“We’re making the adjustments and I think we’re getting better game after game,” he said.

Parks said the Beermen have shown improved chemistry following their 94-59 dumping of the Bangkok Cobras on Saturday night.

Instead of just relying heavily on their imports, the Beermen came up with a balanced charge led by Doug Thomas (14 points and 11 rebounds), Leo Avenido and RJ Rizada (13 points each) and Kelvin dela Peña and Dalron Johnson (12 points each).

“We shuffled the line-up a bit because in the last few games, we got off to a bad start,” said Parks. “We wanted to put a quicker team.”

The Beermen had already dropped two games on the road against the Westports Malaysia Dragons (83-77 in overtime) and the Singapore Slingers (71-63).

“We hate those losses, but we learn from them,”said Parks. “They test the character of the team and they will make us better in the long run.”

The Beermen hope to do better on the road as they go for a second straight triumph against the winless Saigon Heat on Saturday night at the Tan Binh Stadium in Vietnam.

The scores:
AIRASIA PHILIPPINES 86—Johnson 27, Miller 21, Vergara 13, Fernandez 7, Larong 6, Rodriguez 4, Laure 4, Ybañez 2, Raymundo 2, Wainwright 0, Saldua 0, Juntilla 0.
MALAYSIA 72—Williams, 23 Wade 16, Cabahug 10, Ng 5, Kwaan 4, Loh 4, Pacana 3, Batumalai 3, Belasco 2, Lau 2, Kuppusamy 0, Kuek 0.
Quarters: 22-13, 46-29, 70-43, 86-72