The Macau Black Bears basketball team has lost its first match of this year’s ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) invitational championship.
The Bears, the only professional basketball team playing under the Macau flag were defeated by Vietnam’s Saigon Heat by just eight points (84 vs 76) in a match that took place on Tuesday evening at Singapore’s OCBC Arena.
Today (8 p.m. Macau time) the Bears will have their second match of the 2023 season against the current leaders of the championship, the Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions.
The Long Lions lead the championship after beating the Cooly Bangkok Tigers (94 vs 63) on Monday.
Back in the 2019-2020 league, the Bears beat the Eastern by 93 vs 79 in a match played at Hong Kong’s Southorn Stadium.
Following the Long Lions on the lead of this year’s table are the Zamboanga Valientes from the Philippines, Saigon Heat, and the Singapore Slingers, although the Heat has already played two matches.
The ABL invitational championship is composed of eight teams, including also Malaysia’s NS Matrix, and Indonesia’s Louvre Surabaya.
The Macau team has three local players on the roster and it is coached by the Canadian Charles Dubé-Brais.
