By Kevin Estrada
STA. ROSA, LAGUNA — San Miguel Alab Pilipinas did not mind about Justin Brownlee at all Sunday evening, after they outclassed Saigon anew 99-76, to remain second in the ASEAN Basketball League.
Unlike their first meeting two weeks ago where they had to make a last-minute stand after nearly blowing a 23-point lead, the men of Jimmy Alapag made sure that they controlled the tempo of the game, with all eight players used scored to maintain their hold at second with a 10-6 record, two games behind leaders Mono Vampire.
The frontcourt duo of Sam Deguara and Nick King responded with huge bounce back games after losing badly to the KL Dragons last time out, with the latter pitching in a monster double double of 20 points and 15 rebounds to supplement the 23 markers of the Maltese slotman.
Hometown hustler Lawrence Domingo played out his best game this season, only missing two of his 10 field goal attempts for 18, making sure that the prolonged absence of the Ginebra stalwart was not felt for the entire game.
Sources told BurnSports.Ph that there were some concerns about their communication lines between them and Brownlee with regards to his flight plans, stemming from his failure to connect with the team to Malaysia last Wednesday.
Alab put the fire out of the visiting Heat early in the opening frame, firing in a 9-0 blitz to overturn a three-point deficit into a 15-9 lead that they will never relinquish, leading by as much as 24 in the third quarter.
Sam Thompson waxed hot with 36 points, but the sheer firepower of Alab was just too much as Saigon fell to league worst 3-11.
The scores:
SAN MIGUEL ALAB PILIPINAS 99 — Deguara 23, King 20, Domingo 18, Brickman 10, Vigil 8, Rosser 8, Heading 7, Rangel 5
SAIGON HEAT 79 — Thompson 36, Tran 18, White 13, Taylor 7, Q. Nguyen 3, Dierker 2, Young 0, Dinh 0, Waale 0, T. Nguyen 0
Quarter scores: 25-17, 56-36, 75-56, 99-79.
Follow the writer on Twitter: @kevinlestrada
Photo courtesy of Asean Basketball League
