April 24 ------ KJ McDaniels and Justin Brownlee helped Pelita Jaya Basketball open Round 2 of the Basketball Champions League Asia (BCL Asia) Qualifiers with a 94-79 win over NS Matrix, at the Britama Arena in Jakarta, Indonesia. The former NBA cager finished with a team-high 24 points, while the naturalized Filipino supplied 11 markers as the ex-PBA imports aided their side’s second-half breakaway to take the early lead in the single round-robin phase.
McDaniels shot 57.8-percent from the field and also collected seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a block in 32 minutes. Brownlee, on the other hand, submitted a full line as well with eight boards, four dimes, a steal, and a block each in a turnover-less performance. JaQuori McLaughlin fired 21 points on five triples. He went 4-for-4 from deep for 12 points in the first quarter alone, leading Pelita Jaya to a 27-16 lead as they remained ahead all the way. He also had three rebounds and six assists. Indonesia men’s team veteran Andakara Prastawa Dhyaksa supplied 16 points, spiked by four treys, in the wire-to-wire victory that saw the crew hike their lead to as high as 17 points, 77-60, early in the fourth quarter.
Leading the Deers in the loss, on the other hand, was Ting Chun Hong, who finished with 24 points on 6-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc. Jordan Tolbert tallied a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds. Taishaun Johnson made 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals, while Kuek Tian Yuan added 13 points and eight rebounds. The two best teams in the four-team Round 2, the others being Prawira Harum Bandung and Hong Kong Eastern, will reach the BCL Asia proper.
There, they will join the champion teams from Japan (B.League), Korea (Korean Basketball League), China (CBA League), and the Philippines (Philippine Basketball Association), in addition to two clubs from FIBA West Asia Super League.
Source: tiebreakertimes.com.ph