San Miguel-Alab PH draws first blood vs Saigon

Renaldo Balkman. Photo from ASEAN Basketball League

Ray Parks fired 24 points as San Miguel Alab Pilipinas continued its mastery of Saigon, 110-100, on Sunday night to grab a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three quarterfinal series in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Facing a team it has already beaten twice in the elimination round, Alab proved relentless from start to finish as coach Jimmy Alapag’s charges put the Heat to the sword for its maiden playoff victory since joining the regional league last year.

World import Justin Brownlee flirted with a triple double for Alab, finishing with 22 points and 11 rebounds on top of eight assists, while Renaldo Balkman had 17 points, 20 rebounds, six assists, and four steals as the Filipino club broke out of the gates hard and never looked back.

A win this Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City will send Alab to the semifinals where it will meet second seed Eastern of Hong Kong bannered by Filipino-German Christian Standhardinger.

Parks hit 8-of-17 shots as he gave Alab a 97-75 advantage with 7:28 remaining, before the Filipinos cruised the rest of the way.

Alapag felt his team could have played better.

“From an effort standpoint it was great but we were far from the sharpest we could be, and that’s on me,” said Alapag, whose team faced a Heat side that fielded just six players and played without head coach Kyle Julius, who got ejected with two minutes left in the first half, for most of the night.

“We have to be sharper both offensively and defensively, we had the game in hand in a lot of instances but we let them get back into it,” added Alapag.

Alab started pulling away late in the first half, before pouring it on again in the third period, but Alapag is worried with his squad’s defensive effort.

“We gave up a hundred points to four guys tonight,” said the former Gilas Pilipinas captain. —CEDELF P. TUPAS