Alab Pilipinas, Saigon start best-of-3 ABL quarterfinal

San Miguel Alab Pilipinas seeks to gain an early edge as it clashes with the Saigon Heat tonight in Game One of their best-of-three quarterfinal duel in the ASEAN Basketball League at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.

Alab finished in a three-way tie for second spot after the elimination round with Hong Kong Eastern and Thailand’s Mono Vampire with their identical 14-6 (win-loss) records but wound up as the No. 3 seed upon the application of the quotient system to break ties.

The Phl club would have clinched the No. 2 seed and one of the two outright semifinal slots had Hong Kong beaten China’s Chong Son Kung Fu.

Chong Son, however, came from behind to beat Hong Kong, 88-77, Wednesday at the Southorn Stadium in Hong Kong to claim the top seeding and the homecourt edge the rest of the tournament while sending the latter to No. 2 and Alab to No. 3 and into the quarters.

Game One of the Alab-Saigon quarters is at 8 p.m.

Game Two shifts to the CIS Arena in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam at 7 p.m. on April 7 while Game Three, if necessary, returns to the Philippines at the Sta. Rosa Multi Sports Complex in Laguna at 8 p.m. on April 11.

The winner of the Alab-Saigon showdown faces Hong Kong, a team headed by Fil-German Christian Standhardinger, in another best-of-three set-up.

The other quarters duel pits No. 4 Mono Vampire against No. 5 Singapore Slingers with the winner tangling with Chong Son Kung Fu.