MANILA – Renaldo Balkman broke the league record in points as San Miguel-Alab Pilipinas escaped with a 98-94 win over Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions in Game 1 of the ASEAN Basketball League semifinals at Southorn Stadium in Hong Kong.
Balkman finished the match with league-best 46 points, shattering the 45 point performance of Justin Howard for Singapore Slingers in 2016.
The former NBA forward also had 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals on Wednesday.
Reigning MVP Bobby Ray Parks Jr. had double-double 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Justin Brownlee flirted with triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists for Alab, which can close the series on Sunday here.
Alab had a slow start and were down by as much as 4-17 before making its run in the second period behind Balkman, Parks and Brownlee to surge to a 50-43 advantage at the half.
The lead grew to as high as 75-60 in the third period on consecutive inside points by Balkman. Hong Kong, however, countered with a run early in the fourth period to cut the deficit to 74-79.
Alab was quick to respond as it widened the advantage to 10 points anew before Hong Kong had its last push to tie the count at 94-all. Free throws by Balkman and Brownlee served as the marginal basket for the Philippine squad.
“There is not much to celebrate yet,” said Alab head coach Jimmy Alapag. “While we’re much, much different team compared to we were in the first half of the season, they are still the defending champions.”
Thai-American Tyler Lamb led the way with 32 points, American import Marcus Elliot had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, while Filipino-German Christian Standhardinger had 18 points and 15 rebounds for Long Lions./PN
