Christian Standhardinger continues to show the ASEAN Basketball League why he is the top overall pick in the 2017 PBA Draft.
After impressive outings in the first two games of the season, the Filipino-German was unstoppable Friday evening, helping defending champions Hong Kong Eastern Basketball Team derail the streaking Mono Vampire Basketball Club, 112-105, at Stadium 29 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Without World Import Ryan Moss and three of his teammates fouling out, the 6-foot-7 big man was given the freedom to operate. And he did not waste this opportunity, going 15-for-21 from the field and 10-for-14 from the stripe to reach 40 points.
Photo from ASEAN Basketball League
Still, Standhardinger did not look at the positives of his outing, instead focusing on the errors he had made.
“Actually today was not a good day, I had three easy lay-ups that I missed so I had apologize to my teammates for it because I messed up their assists,” said the 2017 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, who also had 17 rebounds, three assists, and a block in 40 minutes of game time.
“But everything else, the victory is the most important thing so I’m happy that everything worked out.”
His 40-point outing is the second highest scoring output by a Heritage Import. Matthew Wright holds the record after finishing with 41 points last February 7, 2016, leading the Kuala Lumpur Dragons to a win against Hi-Tech Bangkok City.
With the win, Hong Kong Eastern is knotted with Chong Son Kung Fu on top of the standings with identical 3-0 records.
“It’s a great league. I’m so happy that we’re competing at this high level,” added the incoming San Miguel Beermen rookie.
In three games, the 28-year-old is currently posting stellar numbers of 28.33 points, 12.67 rebounds, and 3.0 steals per game. Despite this, Standhardinger still feels he still has a lot of things to improve on.
“I have a lot to learn,” the Munich-born cager shared.
“I’ll never be done with improving and learning and I’m very excited of the journey and to hopefully get better every single day.”
And that is just a scary thought for both the ABL and the PBA.
