Carl Bryan Cruz erupted for 28 points while Isaiah Austin registered a monster game of 27 points and 19 boards as Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas slayed Mono Vampire of Thailand, 115-102, to bounce back in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup Sunday at Chenzhou Sports Center in China.
Cruz was on fire all throughout the game, burying eight out of 11 triples. He hit six of them in the first half where Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas zoomed to a 15-point lead that it maintained for the rest of the way.
Austin, who played through a leg injury, also had four blocks to make up for a subpar performance last outing that saw the Philippine squad lose to Palestinian club Sareyyet Ramallah.
Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas got off to a blazing start, pulling away with a 27-12 lead thanks to its hot three-point shooting led by CBC.
But Mono Vampire, led by former PBA import Mike Singletary and Fil-Am guard Jason Brickman, also found its stroke from downtown. The Thai club managed to close the gap to just a point, 45-44, in the second quarter.
After the first two quarters, both teams combined for a total of 20 triples.
But despite repeated attempts by Mono Vampire to take over, Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas kept its poise with timely hits.
Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas finally put the nail in the coffin in the last two minutes, with an Austin dunk increasing their advantage to 15 points which was too much to overcome for Mono Vampire.
Kiefer Ravena, the tournament’s top Asian scorer so far, finished with 24 points and seven assists while Jeron Teng 17 points five rebounds for Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas which is in a good position to move on to the next round.
The squad will take a break on Monday before closing out the group stages against Petrochimi of Iran.
