By Adrian Stewart Co

San Miguel Alab Pilipinas defeated Thai outfit Mono Vampire Basketball Club in a 78-59 drubbing over the weekend in the 2018-2019 ASEAN Basketball League at the Stadium 29 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Renaldo Balkman led the Philippines with 31 points, six rebounds, two assists, and four steals; while Peter John Ramos contributed 16 points, 19 rebounds, and seven assists.

Alab Pilipinas clung to a 24-19 lead at the end of first period before slowly widening it to 40-33 at the half on conversions from Balkman, Ramos, and Bobby Ray Parks, Jr.

The Philippine squad continued to pull away with Balkman dropping 11 of his points in a furious 15-7 scoring run in the third quarter, pushing their lead to 55-40 on a triple by Joshua Urbiztondo.

The Thai squad continued to struggle in the fourth period, which the Philippines took advantage of and built its largest lead of 20 points on a dunk by Ramos with six minutes left./ASC, WDJ