ABL: Patriots survive Barracudas, 71-62

The Philippine Patriots started slow but finished strong to hack out a 71-62 win over the Brunei Barracudas in the AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League Sunday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City. The Patriots nearly squandered a 12-point lead when the Barracudas went on a scoring spree early in the payoff period, but former University of Santo Tomas star Allen Maliksi rose to the occasion to help the team weather Brunei’s late charge. Maliksi provided the killing blows for the squad co-owned by Harbour Centre’s Mikee Romero and Tony Boy Cojuangco by hitting a huge basket before completing a three-point play. Those baskets enabled the defending champions to pull away for good to the delight of the crowd. The win enabled the Patriots to forge a three-way tie for the early lead with the Thailand Slammers and the Singapore Slingers. The Slammers, behind reinforcements Chris Kuete and former Patriots import Jason Dixon, defeated the KL Dragons in overtime, 79-74, last Saturday, while the Slingers edged last year's runner-up Satria Muda BritAma of Indonesia, 94-93. "We we're very sluggish defensively. We we're up by 12 points (43-31 in the third quarter) and suddenly it became a one-point lead," said Patriots coach Louie Alas. "We still don't have the desire to play defense. Like I told them earlier, don't make this into a showcase." - RCJ, GMANews.TV