The NLEX Road Warriors simply couldn’t find any answers to the barrage of triples by the ET Land Elephants, 60-75, in their Asia League Summer Super 8 encounter, Wednesday at the Macao East Asian Games Dome in China.
With the defeat, the Road Warriors’ trip to the semifinals was delayed – for now. The Elephants, meanwhile, are advancing, as they have improved to 2-0.
Unlike in their 94-68 win over the Formosa Dreamers in the tourney’s curtain-raiser yesterday, where they deployed a balanced attack, only Mac Tallo finished in double figures with 13 points along with five rebounds.
The match had been tight in the first half, until the South Korean ball club found their stroke in the second half and pulled away. They opened the third quarter with a 13-3 spree en route to a 45-33 lead with 6:05 on the clock.
The Road Warriors played catch-up from there and even neared by three, but the Elephants were just too hard to stop, especially in the final frame. Kim Jung Nyon’s triple propelled ET Land to their biggest lead, 75-52, with 4:16 left.
The Elephants shot just 25-of-68 from the floor in general, but 15 of their converted shots came from beyond the arc – way too far from the four triples by the Filipino ball club.
Three Koreans led ET Land’s attack, with Park Sung Jin on the forefront with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Park Bong Jin provided 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Jeong Hyu Geun had 11 markers built on three triples with seven boards.
The Road Warriors will look to bounce back versus China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers tomorrow, July 19.
The Scores:
NLEX (60) – Tallo 13, Quiñahan 9, Rios 9, Marcelo 8, Soyud 8, Miranda 6, Ighalo 3, Monfort 2, Tiongson 2, Baguio 0, Uyloan 0, Taulava 0.
ET Land (75) – Park S.J. 14, Park B.J. 12, Jeong H.G. 11, Jung Y.S. 9, Kim N.H. 9, Hong G.K. 8, Kim S.K. 6, Kim J.M. 3, Jeong B.K. 2, Lim J.S. 1, Choi W.H. 0.
Quarterscores: 16-18, 32-30, 47-57, 60-75.
