MANILA – San Miguel-Alab Pilipinas rode on a huge fourth quarter run to score an 86-72 win over Formosa Dreamers of Taiwan in the 2018-2019 ASEAN Basketball League on Friday night at the Sta. Rosa Multi-Purpose Complex in Taiwan.
Trailing 65-69 with over six minutes in the match, the Alab Pilipinas rode on a 21-3 run behind Renaldo Balkman, Peter John Ramos, Pao Javelona, Caelan Tiongson, and Bobby Ray Parks Jr. to turn things around.
Balkman finished the match with 19 points, 20 rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block, while fellow Puerto Rican import Ramos added 16 markers for the defending champions.
Parks, who was recently drafted to play for Blackwater Elite in PBA, had his best showing this season with 13 markers, while Bacolodnon Javelona added 11 markers for the Philippine squad, which improved to 3-0.
Alab Pilipinas did not have the best start in the match as it trailed 5-13 behind Dreamers conversions but slowly clawed its way back behind Balkman, Ramos and Parks to cut the deficit to a single basket.
It was a seesaw battle for both teams since then with no team leading by double figures but the Dreamers regained the advantage midway in the fourth quarter at 69-65 with seven minutes in the match.
Alab Pilipinas, however, did not allow themselves to be beaten at home by unloading a huge scoring run to build its largest lead of the match at 14 points with under a minute left in the game.
Malcolm Miller led the way with 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists while Will Artino and Kenny Chen added 14 markers apiece for the Dreamers, which slid down to 6-2 card./PN
