Manila – San Miguel-Alab Pilipinas suffered another heartbreaking defeat in the 2018-2019 ASEAN Basketball League after losing to Taiwan’s Formosa Dreamers, 72-73, on Sunday at Changhua Stadium in Taiwan.
Alab is close to completing a rally from a deficit as high as 15 points after a taking a 72-70 lead on a triple by Ethan Alvano with six seconds left but Lee Hsueh Lin scored a triple of his own to surge the Dreamers ahead for good.
With the defeat, defending champions Alab Pilipinas slid down to 6-2 win-loss slate after ending their grueling four games in eight days, including two road matches.
Alab suffered a huge blow early in the game with import Peter John Ramos getting ejected for technical fouls, while Bobby Ray Parks Jr. did not return in the game after sustaining an injury.
In the fourth quarter, the Philippine squad were still down 55-63 before unloading a huge run behind Renaldo Balkman, Lorenzo Domingo and Alvano to take a 72-70 lead.
After the three-point conversion of Lee, Alab Pilipinas still has a chance to regain the victory but Thomas Torres turned the ball over at the last minute.
Balkman finished with double-double 27 points and 16 rebounds, while Tiongson also had a double-double of 15 markers and 13 boards for the Philippine-based team.
Alvano continued to provide good numbers for Alab as he finished with 11 points, nine assists and eight rebounds but was not enough to turn things around for the Philippines./PN
