THE FREEFALL of the country’s lone representative in the ASEAN Basketball League continued as the Pilipinas MX3 Kings got bested by the Mono Vampire Club, 74-76, on Sunday night at the Chualongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.
Not even the arrival of new import Nakiea Miller, a former Best Import winner in this league, could stop the bleeding for the Kings who dropped to a league-worst 1-6 record. The hope for a second win for the Kings was high as they uncorked an 11-0 run late in the first to seize a 22-17 advantage.
But the home squad responded in kind and leaned on the production of Anthony McClain, Jittaphon Towaroj and Kanut Samerjai to head to halftime in front, 40-37. The second half was played on near-even terms with the Thai team clinging to a 72-67 lead, three minutes left when the Philippine contingent pulled to a matchstick after free throws from Eric Salamat and Arizona Reid.
But Samerjai came up big with an offensive board and a timely dish to McClain for an easy basket that raised the lead to three, 74-71, 22 seconds remaining. The Kings had one last shot to tie the match but Reid had the ball plucked away from him by Samerjai who went coast-to-coast for the game-sealing bucket.
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