Historic night for Renaldo Balkman. Photo from ABL website
San Miguel Alab Pilipinas kept rolling after beating Hong Kong Eastern anew, 96-81, in the 2019 Asean Basketball League Friday night at Southorn Stadium in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
Renaldo Balkman had another efficient and all-around night with a game-high 32 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the field on top of four rebounds, four assists and three blocks to power Alab to its seventh victory in a row.
Balkman, the former NBA veteran, was at his best in the pivotal fourth period, where he fired 10 points alone as Alab outscored Hong Kong, 23-10, after leading by only two at the end of the third quarter.
Ray Parks was also red-hot from the field, finishing with 23 points missing only three of his 12 shots in only his second game back from a groin injury that sidelined him for three games.
PJ Ramos added a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Philippine side, which hiked its league-leading record to 13-2.
But the spotlight was on Balkman, who made ABL history as the fastest player to reach 1000 points, needing only 40 games to achieve the feat.
Alab shot 58 percent from the field and held Hong Kong to just 34 percent.
O’Darien Bassett scored 24 points while Sam Deguara had 20 points and 16 rebounds for Hong Kong (11-9), which dropped to 0-3 against Alab this season with all of its losses by double-digits.