San Miguel Beermen off to hot start, beats Indonesia

THE SAN MIGUEL Beermen had a successful debut as they trumped the Indonesia Warriors, 76-70, in the “To Be Number 1 Basketball Challenge”—a preseason tournament of the Asean Basketball League held at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok.

The Warriors led for most of the first half and even held a 43-37 advantage at halftime.

Chris Banchero led the way with 21 points while imports Richard Jeter added 16 points while Dalron Johnson tallied 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Former University of Cebu stalwart, the 6-foot-10 Junemar Fajardo debuted with six points and five rebounds.

The country’s other squad in the ABL, the Philippine Patriots, were going up against expansion team Saigon Heat as of this writing.

The inaugural champions of the league will try to test their mettle against Saigon, who is fielding a Fil-American in John Smith.

A former PBA D-League cager, Smith played for the Junior Powerade Tigers in the Foundation Cup early this year. Also with the Heat is Cambodian-American Sopheoun Oeun, who had 24 points when the Cambodians faced Sinag Pilipinas in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta.  Correspondent Jonas Panerio