By Ivan Saldajeno
STA. ROSA, Laguna--Alab Pilipinas survived a fourth quarter meltdown and escaped with an 82-75 win over Saigon in their ABL game at the Sta. Rosa Multi-Purpose Sports Complex here on Sunday night.
In their first meeting of the season, Alab looked poised to maul the Heat after opening a 50-31 lead at halftime.
Saigon, however, slowly crawled back into the game and held Alab to just eight points in the first 9:20 of the fourth period while trimming the lead to just four, 79-75.
The Heat eventually lost steam as Alab broke out of their pressure defense, leading to Sam Deguara's dagger slam dunk with 31 seconds to play, and kept them scoreless the rest of the way.
Nick King put up 26 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, and four steals for Alab, which now opened a one-game lead over the Taipei Fubon Braves and the Formosa Dreamers for second place at 9-5 while now trailing Mono Vampire by one game at the top of the standings. Fubon's 99-106 overtime loss at Singapore earlier Sunday sufficed for Alab to claim solo second spot.
Deguara added 15 points, seven rebounds, one block, and one steal.
Deguara added 15 points, seven rebounds, one block, and one steal.
Sam Thompson dropped 32 points, 22 in the second half, 11 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block for Saigon, which fell to 3-10.
Singapore 106 Taipei Fubon 99
At the OCBC Arena in Singapore, the Slingers pulled away late in the overtime session to pip the Braves at home.
Singapore, which saw its solid first quarter countered by Fubon's second quarter dominance to turn the game into a close one, broke a 98-all tie with the game deciding 8-0 run sparked by Kelvin Lim's go-ahead jumper.
Leon Kwek posted 26 points, three rebounds, and three steals for the Slingers, who moved back up to .500 at 6-6.
Marcus Elliott added 25 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and two steals, while Xavier Alexander made another triple-double with 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists with one steal and one block.
Maxie Esho and Charles Garcia each put up 25 markers with the latter grabbing 10 rebounds for the double-double to pace the Braves, who fell to a tie with the Dreamers at 8-6. OJ Mayo added 20 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
Box Scores:
First Game
Singapore 106-Kwek 26, Elliott 25, Alexander 24, McClain 12, Goh 10, K. Lim 6, J. Lim 3, Ng 0
Taipei Fubon 99-Esho 25, Garcia 25, Mayo 20, J. Lin 11, Tsai 8, Tseng 5, Kuo 3, M. Lin 2, Hung 0, Yang 0
Quarterscores: 24-17, 39-42, 67-70, 93-93, 106-99
Second Game
Alab Pilipinas 82-King 26, Deguara 15, Gray 13, Heading 9, Domingo 6, Brickman 5, Rosser 4, Williams 2, Vigil 2, Caracut 0, Aban 0, Rangel 0
Saigon 75-Thompson 32, Taylor 15, White 10, Tran 7, Young 5, Dierker 2, Nguyen 2, Dinh 2
Quarterscores: 25-15, 50-31, 71-54, 82-75
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