Patriots hope to get back on winning track

The AirAsia Philippine Patriots try to bounce back from a 78-70 defeat against the San Miguel Beermen when they take on the Indonesia Warriors in the 3rd ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Saturday at the San Juan Gym.   Head coach Glenn Capacio said the Patriots, who battles the Warriors at 4 p.m., are eager to recover by playing at full strength from start to finish. "We need to have a good start, and to do that, we have to be aggressive and shoot the ball well," said Capacio. The Patriots will battle their former import Steve Thomas, who brought the team to last season's ABL finals where they lost to the Chang Thailand Slammers via a two-game sweep of the best-of-three series. Imports Nakiea Miller and Anthony Johnson are leading the Patriots' scoring but the team also needs offensive production from the locals like Aldrech Ramos, Al Vergara, Ardy Larong and Warren Ybanez. That was evident against the Beermen when Leo Avenido scored 14 to help their imports Dalron Johnson and Doug Thomas, which the Patriots failed to match. "We have to rotate the ball well and find an open man or go hard for the basket," said Capacio. Indonesia, formerly Satria Muda BritAma, is also coming off a 93-80 loss to the Westport Malaysia Dragons, a team coached by Filipino Ariel Vanguardia and bannered by ex-PBA players Nick Belasco and Chris Pacana. The Warriors are a potent team having acquired import Jonathan Smith and ex-Adamson point guard Jerick Cañada. Veteran internationalist and last season’s Most Valuable Player Mario Wuysang is also in the Indonesia line-up. — JVP, GMA News