Patriots claim 1st final slot

KUALA LUMPUR – The Philippine Patriots shackled the Kuala Lumpur Dragons with their pesky defense to pull off a 70-65 come-from-behind victory and clinch the first final berth in the Asean Basketball League at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last Wednesday.

The Patriots fell behind by as many as 16 points in the second quarter but toughened up on defense to force a series of turnovers and bounce back into the contest before hanging tough in the clutch to complete their sweep of the Dragons in their series.

A fiery 10-0 run highlighted by a triple by Rob Wainwright and a three-point play by Gabe Freeman at the start of the last period shoved the Patriots to the lead for the very first time en route to the victory.

Jason Dixon led the Patriots with 22 points, including a crucial three-point play off Jamal Brown for a 68-63 lead heading into the final two minutes. He also had 11 rebounds for his 13th double-double performance in his last 14 games as the Patriots completed a sweep of their best-of-three semis series.

The Patriots, co-owned by Harbour Centre’s Mikee Romero and businessman Tony Boy Cojuangco, will face either the Singapore Slingers or Indonesia’s Satria Muda BritAma for the crown.

The Jakarta-based squad forced a rubber match for the other finals seat after blasting the Slingers, 74-45.

Freeman had an awful six-of-18 shooting but still finished with 17 points and 12 boards.

“We were very complacent in the first half,” said coach Louie Alas. “But I told the boys to toughen up on defense and I guessed that’s the story of the game.”

The Dragons, starring Filipino import Rudy Lingganay, Cameroonian Chris Kuete, local Shee Fai Loh and Brown, raced to an early 35-19 lead. But a 13-5 windup on baskets from Jaypee Alcaraz and Warren Ybañez enabled the Patriots to cut the deficit to 40-32 at halftime.

JP Alcaraz had seven points, four rebounds and two assists, Ybañez tallied five points, four assists and two steals while forward Jerwin Gaco wound up with six points, one rebound, one assist and one shot block.

“We relied too much on our imports and we rarely attacked the basket in the first half,” said Alas. “But when Jerwin came in the third quarter, he was attacking aggressively.”

Christian Coronel, the Patriots’ second-string point guard, also provided steady contributions off the bench with five points, two rebounds, two assists, most of which came in the second half.