Unbeaten Chong Son Kung Fu BC needed a huge outing by debuting Filipino-American guard Mikh McKinney to keep its unbeaten slate intact. The second-running team rallied from a fourth quarter deficit to down the CLS Knights, 86-83, Saturday evening at the GOR Kertajaya Surabaya in Indonesia.
McKinney, the first-ever student-athlete from Sacramento State to earn the Big Sky Player of the Year award in school history, tallied 16 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and a whopping seven steals in his first-ever ABL game. And he proved pivotal in the final frame.
Chong Son was down by as much as 15 points in the game and nine points with 6:42 remaining. A three-pointer by McKinney sparked a 14-0 rally. A lay-up by fellow Fil-Am Caelan Tiongson knotted things up at 73-all with 4:11 left.
Tiongson gave Chong Son its biggest lead of the game, 82-76.
CLS attempted a late-game hijack. A turnover by Tiongson led to a CLS triple that sliced the lead to just a solitary point with 41 ticks left. The 6-foot-4 forward was able to make it up by finding Justin Howard to extend the lead to three, 32 seconds later. Desperation triples by Brian Williams and Decorey Jones could not find the hole to finish the game.
Tiongson, who averaged 12.67 points and 5.67 rebounds prior to the game, shot just 3-for-10 from the field to finish with just six markers. He was able to make it up by gobbling down 13 boards to go along with two swats.
Knights Heritage Import Rudy Lingganay struggled in the contest. The former UE Red Warrior was only fielded in for two minutes and 45 seconds, as he committed three turnovers to close out the second frame.
Filipino-Indonesian Biboy Enguio had two points on 1-of-7 shooting, three rebounds, two assists, and a steal off the bench for CLS.
CSKF went to 4-0 with the win while CLS dropped to 1-5.
