Philippines thump Malaysia
THE Philippines strolled to their third straight win at the Southeast Asian Basketball (Seaba) Championship after handing a young Malaysian team a 106-51 beating in Manila yesterday.
Led by former NBA player Andre Blatche, Philippines recorded their biggest victory over Malaysia since a 62-point win at the 2015 Seaba Championship.
Blatche, who played for the Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets before taking up Philippine citizenship in 2014, scored 13 points to lead six Philippines players in double figures. Heng Yee Tong topscored for M a l ays i a with 12 points on four-ofsix shooting from beyond the threepoint line while Ting Chun Hong added 10 points.
After Malaysia's Teo Kok Hou scored the first basket, the home side responded with a 13-0 run to take a firm grip on the game and ended the first quarter leading 36-17.
Philippines restricted Malaysia to nine points in the second quarter as they reached half-time 6126 ahead before extending their lead to 88-35 heading into the final period.
Malaysia put up more of a fight in the last 10 minutes to restrict the margin of defeat to 55 points.
Indonesia registered their third consecutive win after Mario Wuysang sank the winning basket with 11 seconds remaining before regaining possession with four seconds to go to edge Thailand 60-59.
Vietnam claimed their first victory in two games after beating fellow novices Myanmar 77-44.
Malaysia will bid to win for the first time today against Singapore, who have lost both their matches against Indonesia and Philippines.
Singapore have won the last three meetings with Malaysia, whose last victory over their Causeway rivals came at the 2015 Seaba Championship in Singapore where Malaysia finished runners-up. Devinder Singh