Valientes chalk up 2nd win The Asian Tournament

MANILA, Philippines -- The Zamboanga Valientes notched their second win in the opening leg of The Asian Tournament after holding on against the Pola Pilipinas RPG, 98-88, Wednesday in Guangdong, China.

Zamboanga guard Franky Johnson erupted for 22 points in the game, making five 3-pointers in 24 minutes off the bench.

Malick Diouf had a monster performance of 16 points and 20 rebounds; while Nick Evans stuffed the statsheet with 15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three blocks.

The Valientes held a huge 32-point lead, 80-48, going into the fourth quarter and looked primed to run away with the game.

However, the other Philippine squad exploded with a 32-10 run to go within 10, 90-80, with less than two minutes in the game.

Diouf and Evans then put the finishing touches with a mini 5-0 run as the Valientes went up up 95-80 with 45 seconds left.

Pola was able to cut the lead to eight with a pair of freebies by Joseph Marquez, but time was not on their side any longer.

“I think [it] was a really hard-fought win, obviously this is another Filipino team so they are going to come out here and give us their best. Tonight we really played for pride. I’m glad that we are the Filipino team that came out on top,” Johnson said.

“It was a learning experience for the whole team to continue to move forward. We will just go out here and continue executing, keep working on our stuff because now, since these are consolation games, we will prepare for the next [leg] and the next [leg] after that,” he added.

With the win, Zamboanga rose to 2-2 in the season, while Pola dropped to their fourth straight loss.

The Valientes will face the East Asia Pirates on Thursday at 4 p.m.