Warriors rally past Beermen in overtime

 Game on Wednesday (Nimibutr Stadium, Thailand)

7 p.m. (8 p.m. in Manila) – Thailand Slammers vs San Miguel Beermen

MANILA, Philippines - The Indonesia Warriors drew huge baskets from their small men in the clutch as they rallied from 10 points down in regulation to eke out a morale-boosting 98-96 overtime victory over the San Miguel Beermen in the Asean Basketball League before a stunned crowd at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig last night.

Mario Wuysang, Pinoy import Jerrick Cañada and  Fil-Am John Smith combined for all but one of the Warriors’ 18 points in extension as the defending champions stretched their run to four after back-to-back losses while dealing SMB its second setback in four outings.

“It’s an absolute battle. I’m proud of my guys’ effort, they kept grinding even if things weren’t going our way,” said Warriors’ coach Todd Purves, whose team took the solo lead with the win.

The Beermen appeared on their way to victory as they took a 74-64 lead in the last 3:42 of regulation.

But the Warriors’ trio of small men struck hard and the visiting squad managed to catch up and even take an 80-78 lead on two free throws by Cañada in the last 5.1 seconds. Gabe Freeman knotted the count in his own trip at the stripe to force the extra period.

Wuysang (20 points) fired two of his four triples in extension while Cañada (16) canned four clutch charities at endgame as the Warriors completed the come-from-behind win and avenged their 64-53 setback to SMB on opening day.

“We didn’t make any major adjustments in the fourth quarter, just went with smaller backcourt, Wusyang, Cañada and John Smith. They gave us little more ball handling, pick the pace up a little bit, which helped us because we needed to get some baskets on transition,” said Purves.

Smith finished with 16 points as imports Chris Daniels and Steven Thomas added 18 and 17, respectively.

Gabe Freeman led all scorers with 33 points and grabbed 15 rebounds but flubbed a shot in the last 15 seconds. Brian Williams added 22 markers with five boards.