The long break of San Miguel Alab Pilipinas did not do wonders to them. Instead, they fell to the Macau Wolf Warriors in an upset, 93-98, Sunday evening in the ABL Season 10 tournament at the Filoil Flying V Centre.
With two minutes left and the game knotted at 91-all, Julian Boyd knocked down a top-of-the-arc, line-drive triple to put the visitors up for good.
Alab hero Khalif Wyatt could not convert his triple afterward, leading to a tough jumper by Doug Herring over Jeremiah Grey with 1:15 remaining.
The home team could not get it going, with Jason Brickman committing a couple of crucial turnovers during that stretch as well.
Alab saw its four-game winning streak end.
“I have the ultimate respect for Filipino basketball. They have passionate fans and how hard they play [sic]. Going here and beating a Filipino team feels really good. It’s a good win for our organization after a difficult year last year,” said Macau head coach Todd Purves, as they went just 2-4 in 2019.
Herring and Boyd had 21 points each for the Wolf Warriors; the former also grabbed 10 boards, while the latter hauled 12 rebounds. Former Air21 import Seven Thomas had 10 points and 12 rebounds as well.
Locals Chen Cai and Scott Ewing also stepped up with 15 and 13 points, respectively.
“Doug Herring made some big plays for us, and Tang made big hustle plays for us. I thought that Steve Thomas made a big difference defensively. It’s tough to defend Big Sam and he was able to do a hell of a job,” added Purves.
Nick King had 33 points to pace Alab while tallying 12 rebounds, four assists, and a block.
However, San Deguara and Wyatt both struggled. The Maltese big man only had four points and seven rebounds as he struggled with foul trouble; meanwhile, Wyatt shot just 3-of-12 from the field for 15 markers.
Lawrence Domingo and Gray chipped in 11 and 10 markers respectively. Brickman had nine assists and seven points but committed four turnovers.
Alab fell to 4-2.
The San Miguel-backed squad looks to bounce back on Tuesday when it faces the Fubon Braves at 4:30pm, still at the same venue.
The Scores:
Macau 98 — Herring 21, Boyd 21, Cai 15, Ewing 13, Hu 11, Thomas 10, Tang 7, Shentu 0.
San Miguel Alab 93 — King 33, Wyatt 15, Domingo 11, Gray 10, Ganuelas-Rosser 9, Brickman 7, Deguara 4, Vigil 4, Heading 0.
Quarterscores: 25-19, 47-47, 80-76, 98-93.
