After a slow start in the Singapore round of the 2023 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) invitational tournament, the Macau Black Bears have improved their performance in the Indonesian round by achieving three wins in four matches.
In the round played at the city of Batam, the Bears faced and won the first match against the Hong Kong Eastern by four points (67 vs 71).
Two days later, the Bears played once again and beat the Cooly Bangkok Tigers 64 vs 94.
On a streak of three consecutive wins, the Bears were finally stopped by the Singapore Slingers who won by a marginal difference in the game played last Sunday (88 vs 81).
Completing the Batam round Tuesday, the Bears returned to victory, winning the match over the Zamboanga Valientes by 12 points (90 vs 78), thus completing the Indonesian round with the upper hand.
The Bears are now placed 5th overall on the ABL invitational tournament table with 4 wins and 4 losses and a 30 point positive differential on points won versus points conceded.
Leading the tournament table is Hong Kong Eastern with 6 wins and only 2 losses, followed by the NS Matrix and Saigon Heat with the same points but with a worse points differential. In fourth position is the Slingers with 5 wins and 3 losses.
After an almost three-week break the ABL resumes on Feb. 3 with the third round, this time played in Malaysia at the MABA stadium in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
The Bears resume playing on Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. when they will once again face the Zamboanga Valientes.
After that the Bears continued their campaign with two games in two consecutive days (Feb. 6 and 7) facing the Slingers and Louvre Surabaya, respectively. Both matches are scheduled for 6 p.m.
