MANILA, Philippines - Westports Malaysia Dragons squandered a 16-point lead but showed grit down the stretch to escape with a 97-93 overtime squeaker over AirAsia Philippine Patriots in last night’s AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League at the Ynares Sports Arena.
The Dragons drew heavy production from their imports Tiras Wade and Brian Williams, who churned out 34 and 30 points respectively, while getting significant support from Pinoy reinforcement Patrick Cabahug, who scored 17, including two clutch freebies in the dying seconds, to seal their 10th win in 19 outings.
The Patriots dropped to 14-5, a win behind pacesetting San Miguel Beermen (16-4). With the setback in the home game presented by PG Flex Linoleum, the Patriots also ceded the No. 1 seeding to the Beermen going to the playoffs.
“It’s first time we ever beat the Patriots, they’re a tough team,” said Dragons’ Filipino coach Ariel Vanguardia, whose wards caught up with Indonesia Warriors (10-9) at joint third.
“We had to battle a lot of (import) injuries throughout the season; we were 7-2 then we lost seven straight. We waited for Williams and Wade to recover and now that they’re back, the team chemistry is better and we know we have the tools to compete against strong teams like the Patriots,” he added.
Wade hit a big trey to give Malaysia a 94-91 cushion going to the last 1:22. Anthony Johnson made it 93-94 on two freethrows off Williams before the burly Dragons’ import drew a foul and knocked in one of his freebies in the next play for a fresh two-point lead, 53.4 remaining in extension.
After a flubbed offensive by the Patriots, Wade grabbed the offensive rebound off Cabahug’s missed triple to restore possession and this eventually led to a Rob Wainwright foul that Malaysia’s Pinoy shooter converted into two charities for a 97-93 lead, 13 ticks to go.