ABL: Alab Pilipinas rebounds with Macau win, stays perfect at home

Alab Pilipinas scores another home win. Photo from ABL Website

San Miguel Alab Pilipinas sure felt good to be back home.

Alab Pilipinas bounced back from a heartbreaking loss after beating the Macau Black Bears, 106-99, in the 2019 Asean Basketball League Friday night at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Puerto Rican tandem of Renaldo Balkman and PJ Ramos combined for 58 points and 23 rebounds for the Philippine side, which went on a 16-3 blast late in the fourth quarter to break the game wide open.

Balkman fired a game-high 37 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field that went with nine rebounds and four steals while Ramos added 21 points and 14 rebounds.

League-leading Alab stretched its undefeated home record to 6-0, six days after falling 1-2 on the road following a 73-72 setback at the hands of Formosa in Taiwan.

A dunk by Balkman with 1:50 remaining made it 106-91 to cap Alab’s run after Macau pulled to within just two.

Ray Parks posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists while Lawrence Domingo had 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting off the bench. Ethan Alvano also dished out 10 assists on top of his seven points and five rebounds.

Alab shot an impressive 52 percent from the field thanks to their unselfish play. The team assisted on 36 out of its 41 made field goals and turned the ball over just 11 times.

Ryan Watkins and Anthony Tucker each notched a double-double for the Black Bears, who have now lost three in a row and slipped to seventh in the standings with a 6-5 card.

Watkins had 24 points and 15 rebounds while Tucker collected 22 points and 10 assists.