The two teams at the bottom will lock horns to try and power a late rally to salvage what’s left of their elimination round schedule as the Wolf Warriors welcomed the Mono Vampire Basketball Club at the Doumen Gymnasium in Zhuhai.
The Wolf Warriors will be playing again after less than 24 hours of rest as they absorbed a loss to defending champion San Miguel Alab Pilipinas the day before.
Mono Vampire, on the other end, is sporting two new acquisitions after the sudden departure of point guard Jason Brickman after their last loss to the Saigon Heat. After being with the team for two and a half years and helping them reach the ABL Finals last season, Brickman asked for his release which Mono Vampire granted. This move allowed them to add a proven winner and an ABL star into their campaign.
Mike Taylor and Cai Chen more than pulled their own weight but the Wolf Warriors did not get nearly enough from everyone else, specially from their other two imports to put up a better fight against San Miguel Alab Pilipinas. Thus, the Zhuhai-based squad suffered its sixth straight loss, which was their 14th overall with only a win to show for. They were bullied inside not just by PJ Ramos and Renaldo Balkman but by the Alab locals as well.
Cai had another monster game after dropping with 28 points after dropping 25 against the Knights. By his lonesome, he outscored all three local Alab starters but their imports were dominated to the Wolf Warriors lost the match.
Mike Bell and Shawntez Patterson struggled mightily from the field for the Wolf Warriors as Bell only had four points on 2 of 9 shooting from the field while Patterson scored seven but shot at a worse clip with only 3 makes in 14 tries. They did help out in other ways as they had a combined 18 rebounds but their team also needs them to score.
Mono Vampire on the other end also lost their last match and are on a three-game losing skid. They looked good at times against the Saigon Heat. Mono Vampire was only down by two points at the end of the third quarter against the top two team in the league right now but everything fell apart for them in the final quarter.
Mike Singletary and Malcolm White have slowly figured out how to play alongside each other and are posting great numbers together. However, they’ll have to get more support for the other members of the squad.
The Thai team looked outside for the answers to their current woes as they’ve activated the well-travelled Romeo Travis and ABL veteran and former champion Tyler Lamb to rescue their campaign in Season 9. Travis returns to Southeast Asia after winning a championship in the PBA. He is a known leader and also has a reliable mid-range jumper. Lamb on the other end will surely give the Mono Vampire offense more potency as he can drop 25 points in any given game.
