SAN Miguel-Alab Pilipinas looks to close out their best-of-three quarterfinals series against the Saigon Heat this Sunday in the ASEAN Basketball League’s Playoff round in front of a hostile crowd at the CIS Arena in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Filipinos can watch and cheer for the squad on ABS-CBN S+A and S+A HD at 8 p.m.
The team took game one last April 1 when it hacked out a 110-100 victory over their rivals with reigning ABL MVP Bobby Ray Parks scoring 24 points.
World import Justin Brownlee, meanwhile, finished with an almost triple-double job of 22 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists.
Alab Pilipinas has won 10 of its last 12 games but fell short of an outright semifinals seat when defending ABL champions Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions got beat by the Chong Son Kung Fu squad.
After tasting defeat at the hands of Alab the last time they faced each other, the Heat still could not solve the puzzle and saw themselves down big before head coach Kyle Julius was sent off the playing court because of technical fouls for continuous complaining in the first half of the game.
Saigon’s world import Maxie Esho paced the Heat with a career-high 42 point outing while Fil-Am Mikey Williams and Jamaican Akeem Scott chipped in 19 apiece.
Alab will welcome back Josh Urbiztondo in the fold this Sunday as they go for the sweep to move to the semifinal round against defending champs Hong Kong, which is led by Fil-Am center Christian Standhardinger.