Top 5 recent FIBA Asia Champions Cup scoring performances
NONTHABURI (FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2018) — Michael Singletary (Mono Vampire Basketball Club) has been one of the best scorers in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup for the past two years. He was second overall in 2017 with 24.6 PPG and is currently first with 33.0 PPG this year after 3 games in the Group Phase.
Singletary’s best scoring output came against Alvark Tokyo when he racked up tournament-high 44 points on just 30 attempts. Mono Vampire were unfortunately unable to turn that into a win, but it was still one of the best scoring performances in recent FIBA Asia Champions Cup history.
Let’s take a look at some other notable scoring outbursts in the past 3 years of FIBA Asia Champions Cup competition!
Michael Singletary (44 points, Mono Vampire vs Alvark Tokyo 29/9/2018)
The Mono Vampire desperately needed a win over Alvark Tokyo in the Group Phase to advance to the Semifinals so they needed a big game from Singletary to make it happen. Singletary responded by being an unstoppable force on offense whether is was knocking down jumpers, bumping down low, or scoring in transition. The 30-year-old forward became the 3rd player since 2016 to put up at least 40 points in a game and also broke his personal-high that he had set in the previous year.
It wasn’t enough to get the Mono Vampire Basketball Club a win, but it is enough to confirm Singletary’s scoring prowess to the Asia basketball scene.
Michael Singletary (38 points, Mono Vampire vs Sareyyet Ramallah 22/9/2017)
However, it wasn’t as if Singletary wasn’t already a known scoring threat. He had already been lighting it up in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup since 2017. And it took him only one game to put his name on the map.
In Singletary and Mono Vampire’s FIBA Asia Champions Cup debut, the 6’6” forward dropped a big 38 points on Sareyyet Ramallah leading to an exciting overtime win by the Thai club. Singletary went to the line for 17 free-throw attempts, knocking down 13 of them. The 38-point explosion was the highest scoring output in last year’s tournament as well.
Qais Alshabebi (37 points, Al-Ahli vs Dacin Tigers 25/9/2017 and 30/9/2017)
Emirati Alshabebi is the only non-foreign player in the past three years of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup to score more than 30 points and did so twice, interestingly against Chinese-Taipei’s Dacin Tigers both times.
Al-Ahli wasn’t able to win in either occasions, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort from Alshabebi who tried his best to pound it down low and get his team through. Alshabebi was the tournament’s leading scorer with 25.9 points per game and also logged 12.7 rebounds per game.
Sam Young (50 points, Al-Ahli vs Barsy Atyrau 8/10/2016)
In the very first game of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2016, Sam Young wasted no time to introduce himself with a 50-point masterpiece. The record still stands as the highest scoring output in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup up to date, showcasing why he was a former second round NBA draft pick who spent 5 seasons in the league.
It wasn’t a one-hit wonder either as Young ended up averaging 35.0 points with Al-Ahli finishing in 4th place. Young also had 2 other 40+ point games, making him the only player in the past three years of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup to do so.
Preston Knowles (49 points, Al-Rayyan vs Barsy Atyrau 16/10/2016)
A week after Young dropped a 50-piece on Barsy Atyrau, Preston Knowles of Al-Rayyan came thisclose to replicating that scoring excellence by hanging 49 on the club from Kazakhstan.
It was the final game for both teams in the tournament and Preston Knowles probably wanted to leave a lasting impression. Knowles ending up at 2nd overall in scoring with 30.0 PPG in one of the most intense scoring races in tournament history between him, Sam Young, and Justin Hawkins.
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