By Kevin Estrada
San Miguel Alab Pilipinas nearly blew a huge lead in the third quarter, but mounted a late push to force and eventually take a huge overtime win over the Singapore Slingers, 86-77 Sunday evening in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
After blowing their 16-point lead in the penultimate period, Jimmy Alapag’s men clawed their way back in the final frame to take the game into extras and held their nerve to repulse the Lion City cagers for the second time, pushing their record to 8-4 in the process.
“I was really happy with the effort,” said the Mighty Mouse on the huge win. “I thought we’re really good in the first half.”
However, the respite is just brief, as they are back on the road again, with their first meeting with the KL Dragons slated on Tuesday in Malaysia.
Nick King and Jason Brickman combined once again for Alab, as they have done last Thursday in Thailand when they needed five more minutes to repulse Mono Vampire.
The irreplaceable King lead all scorers with 20 points, with Brickman pitching in with 16, none bigger than his takeover mode in the extras where he fired 7 of Alab’s 15 points there to take a huge win that gave them their series edge against the Slingers with one game left between them in their schedule.
Sam Deguara was held to just 8 points, but his towering presence was a goldmine in terms of rebounding, where he pulled a game-high 20 for the hosts.
Both teams had turned the ball over 14 times each, but Alab had converted 8 more points there
Alab’s depth in their rotation withstand the starting unit of the Slingers, as they outscored the Slinger reserves 34-6 despite mainstay Leon Kwek surprisingly lead Singapore for 19 markers.
Bucking yet another slow start, Alab then took over in the middle of the opening frame after firing in 13 unanswered to take a six-point lead, which was then ballooned to 11 at the halftime break.
King’s lay-up gave Alab the 49-33 advantage but Singapore clamped them down the rest of the third, taking a one-point lead before the final frame thanks to their 22-5 reply.
However, the home side clawed their way back in the payoff period, thanks to Andrei Caracut’s six-point spree in place of a resting Brickman, and when he came back, put them ahead 71-69 on a driving lay-up.
Singapore would have the big Anthony Mcclain to thank for in forcing overtime, as he made a pair from the stripe and blocked Deguara’s potential-game winner with almost no time remaining.
But the next five minutes belonged to Alab, firing in a crippling 13-2 finisher to fend off the Slingers, none bigger than Brickman’s dagger triple for the final count.
The scores:
SAN MIGUEL ALAB PILIPINAS 86 — King 20, Brickman 16, Gray 10, Domingo 9, Deguara 8, Ganuelas-Rosser 7, Caracut 6, Williams 5, Heading 3, Vigil 2
SINGAPORE SLINGERS 77 — Kwek 19, Elliot 18, Goh 12, Alexander 11, Mcclain 11, Ng 6, Jun Lim 0, Kelvin Lim 0, Oh 0
Quarter scores: 25-19, 42-31, 54-55, 71-71 (reg.), 86-77 (OT)
Follow the writer on Twitter: @kevinlestrada
