Alab Pilipinas put on a show against CLS to commence their campaign in the 2018-2019 Asean Basketball League.
On Sunday at the GOR CLS in Surabaya, Indonesia, it was an encore performance for the Filipinos as they invaded the home stage of the Knights with a gutsy 88-80 decision in overtime.
The Puerto Rican pair of Renaldo Balkman and PJ Ramos was still a problem for the Indonesians as the former finished with 36 points and 12 rebounds and the latter ended with a 25-marker, 11-board double-double.
Just hours after knowing he had been picked second overall in the 2018 PBA Draft, Ray Parks Jr. contributed 10 points, three rebounds, and two assists to help the Philippines go streaking with two wins in a row to open its title defense.
Unlike the last time the two teams met a week ago, Alab had to work for the win.
They only had a two-point edge, 75-73, with 37 ticks to go before Wong Wei Long willed a layup through all of Ethan Alvano, Balkman, and Ramos to tie the tally.
Neither side would score from there and the game went into overtime.
There, Balkman continued working and, by his lonesome, outscored all of their opponents, 8-5.
Parks and Caelan Tiongson also had timely contributions in the extra period as the Filipinos evaded the upset ax.
