Ray Parks and Alab Pilipinas received a rude welcome in the ABL
Alab Pilipinas raised the curtains of their campaign in the 2016-2017 ASEAN Basketball League Sunday night at the Alonte Sports Arena in Laguna, but it did not turn out the way they — and their supporters — wanted to.
The new Philippine contingent to the Southeast Asian pro league faced the Singapore Slingers in their debut game, but the said debut went spoiled as Alab lost to the more composed Slingers, 71-66.
It was a tough loss to absorb for the home team Alab, who even led by as much as 10, 36-26, in the second period, only to squander such and find themselves lagging by four, 63-59, midway into the final frame.
The Filipinos, receiving an offensive lift from Ray Parks, Jr. and Korean reinforcement Lee Seung Jun, tried to catch up, but a string of missed shots down the stretch aided the Slingers to go up 2-0 in the standings.
With their opening loss against the Singaporeans, Parks, who led Alab with 19 markers and seven boards, gave his honest thoughts on the match, pointing out the team’s shaky consistency all game long.
“There’s this crazy stretch where we played great basketball, then we played terrible basketball. And then we go back to playing good. There’s a lot of erratic stuff going on,” said Parks.
“But we just have to find that out where we can concentrate and play good basketball for forty minutes.”
The loss, said Parks, should not be blamed on particular players, but rather to the whole team, who committed 12 turnovers, went outrebounded 55-39, and dished just six assists.
“We lost as a team. There’s still a lot of adjustments to do. It’s our first game, so we got to move on to the next game,” commented Parks, who last played in the Philippines last July for Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA Olympic Qualifiers in Manila.
The team was regretful with the loss, according to Parks, as they fell short of posting a victory infront of the home crowd in Biñan City.
“It’s a great feeling that we have a crowd, but the thing that sucks is that we weren’t able to win it for them,” said the National University alumnus.
And for Alab to be successful in their following games, the two-time UAAP Most Valuable Player quipped that familiarity and proper execution will be the major key for them.
“I feel like we need to feel each other more. Coming into the game, we’re thinking of so many things. We should break it down and execute the plays. We always wanna be aggressive and get the win, but there’s a right time to do it,” he stated.
“This is just a testament that talent is not gonna win each and every game. We’re not the most talented team. They’re (Slingers) supposed to be the favorites but we played them. And we only had practice for five days so I feel happy about that.”
One of the game’s highlights was the showdown between Parks and Slingers’ foreign reinforcement Xavier Alexander, who was blocked by the former thrice in the game. However, Alexander got the last laugh as he was able to dunk all over Parks in the third canto.
“That’s how basketball is. I enjoyed the match-up. At the end of the day, it’s still a team sport. It’s five against five,” said Parks, who played it cool despite being part of a poster.
But Parks was also quick to admit that his competitiveness and desire to get back at Alexander after that dunk proved to be costly for the whole team.
“For a segment there, I tried to go back at him. And it hurt my team. So that’s just a learning experience for me that I should’ve just kept my cool, kept my composure. The competitor came out in me.”
From the eye-opening defeat, Parks and the whole Alab squad have realized that everything they do on the court should be done correctly.
“That’s why we have to execute the right way. We can play hard, play aggressive, but it has to be the right way,” he stressed.
