Justin Brownlee steered Pelita Jaya to the second round of the Basketball Champions League (BCL) Asia by way of an 89-83 victory over Ulaanbaatar Xac, Thursday night at the UG Arena in Mongolia.
The naturalized Filipino finished with 26 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists as he starred in the Indonesian club’s fourth-quarter assault to turn the game around in their favor after trailing mostly in the first three chapters.
He scored 11 in the said frame, where he scored and assisted in a 10-2 run to open the period for a 73-67 lead to take control of the game for good.
Brownlee would cap off his performance with a perfect trip to the foul line with exactly 25 seconds left to play to not only secure the Group B top seed but to formalize their entry into the next round later in April in Jakarta.
They will be joining Hong Kong Eastern, who were the first to reach Round 2 thanks to NS Matrix’s 98-84 win over Mongolian team Bishrelt Metal earlier in the day, as it helped them clinch the no. 1 seed in Group A with a 2-0 card.
Round 2 will feature a total of four teams, with the other two slots to be disputed by the second and third seeds of the two groups in the ongoing round.
The top two teams in the next round will qualify for the BCL Asia 2024, where they will be battling the champion teams of the Japan B.League, the Korean Basketball League, the PBA, and China’s CBA, plus two FIBA WASL sides.
“When the time comes, [we] just [need] to refocus,” said Brownlee regarding the second round. “We know there’s gonna be some more tough teams out there.
“We just want to continue to get better each and every day. You never know where it may take us, hopefully, it takes us far in this tournament,” he added.
Andakara Prastawa supplied 17 points, while Brandon Jawato and JaQuon McLaughlin added 15 points apiece as the troika also nailed crucial buckets in the deciding chapter to keep the hometown bets at bay.
Pelita Jaya will try to finish their Round 1 campaign unblemished as it battles Singapore’s Adroit Club (0-2) on Saturday, April 6, at 3 p.m.
Tommy Bilguun, on the other hand, had 16 points, five rebounds, and eight assists to lead the Broncos, which fell to 1-1 following the loss.
