MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Chong Son Kung Fu remained undefeated at home as they blew out Alab Pilipinas, 92-77, on Sunday, March 11, at the Nanhai Gymnasium in China. 

Alab Pilipinas showed no signs of resilience as they failed to trim Kung Fu’s double-digit lead in the final frame.

Kung Fu’s second leading scorer Justin Howard was fouled out in the last 28 seconds and finished the game with a monster double-double of 25 points and 16 rebounds.

Alab aimed to bounce back from their one-point loss to the Westports Malaysia Dragons, who ended the Filipinos’ 8-game winning streak. (READ: Westports Malaysia Dragons stun streaking Alab Pilipinas in ABL)

In their previous matchup at home, Alab Pilipinas rallied back to take the overtime win against Chong Son Kung Fu. Both teams entered the match tied at second place with an 11-5 record, but Alab dropped to 11-6 after Sunday’s loss, giving Kung Fu a solo second seed hold. 

Mike McKinney led Chong Son Kung Fu with 26 points as he shot 6-of-10 from the 3-point range. He also passed out 10 assists out of the team’s total of 28. 

Renaldo Balkman lifted Alab Pilipinas with 29 points and 8 rebounds. Bobby Ray Parks Jr followed with 19 points, where 8 were from the last quarter. 

Mike McKinney powered Kung Fu’s hot start as he drained 3 from beyond the arc to give the Chinese team a 7-point lead, 13-6. Justin Howard complimented McKinney’s outside shooting in the first quarter with 10 points from inside the paint. 

Alab rallied back from the 7-point deficit as Justin Brownlee completed a 9-2 run to tie the score at 28-all. Chong Son Kung Fu answered back with an 11-5 run punctuated by two more triples from McKinney. Parks’ triple in the last 44 seconds of the first half managed to cut the deficit to 4, 46-42. 

Kung Fu pulled away in the 3rd quarter as Alab suffered from lackluster offense. Anthony Tucker starred for the Chinese team as he scored a total of 15 points in the 3rd frame alone that saw Kung Fu lead by 20 points in the last 1:46 minutes of the period.

The Scores

Chong Son Kung Fu (92) – McKinney 26, Howard 25, Tucker 23, Tiongson 9, He 6, Song 2, Luo 1, Z. Liu 0, Kamiran 0, Li 0, Mai 0, D. Liu 0.

Alab (77) – Balkman 29, Parks 19, Brownlee 18, Sumalinog 6, Javelona 3, Domingo 2, Maierhofer 2, Urbiztondo 0, Celiz 0, Raymundo 0, Hontiveros 0, Alabanza 0. 

Quarter Scores: 26-19, 46-42, 73-56, 92-77.

– Rappler.com