Justin Brownlee’s brilliance in Asia continues as he emerged as one of the top-performing players at the end of the first round of the Basketball Champions League Asia (BCL-Asia) qualifiers.
Brownlee, who campaigns for the Indonesian side Pelita Jaya, wound up as BCL-Asia second-highest scorer with 18.3 points per game in three matches behind JaQuori McLaughlin of the Prawira Harum Bandung, who averages 20 markers a game.
With Brownlee at the helm, Pelita Jaya made it to the second round of the BCL-Asia qualifiers after topping Group B with a 3-0 record.
His best performance in the BCL-Asia was when he dropped a double-double output of 26 points and 12 rebounds in powering Pelita Jaya to an 89-83 win over Ulaanbaatar Xac Broncos of Magnolia last Thursday.
Brownlee, who made a lot of heads turn in Asia when he powered Gilas Pilipinas to the gold medal of the 19th Asian Games last year, also emerged as one of the top rebounders after notching 9.7 pulls per contest to forge a tie with Prawira Harum Banding big man James Gist.
Aside from Pelita Jaya, Prawira Harum Bandung, another Indonesian club, also made it to the next round together with Hong Kong Eastern of Hong Kong and NS Matrix of Malaysia. The second round starts on 23 April.
Only the top two teams of the second round will get an outright berth to the biggest Asian basketball tournaments, including the finalists of the 2024 International Basketball Federation West Asia Super League and the champions of the Japan B. League, Korean Basketball League, the Chinese Basketball Association and the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Facing the possibility of competing against a PBA team, Brownlee admitted it would be tough going up against the league from the country that gave him a lot of success.
Brownlee won six PBA titles with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel that prompted him to serve as one of Gilas Pilipinas’ naturalized players along with Ange Kouame and Jordan Clarkson.
“I would be torn in a tough place. I got a lot of love for everyone in the Philippines and all so to play the Filipino team outside of the PBA… Oh, man, it’ll be tough for me,” Brownlee said.
“At the same time, you got to compete, no matter who the opponent is. But I definitely wouldn’t want to. But, I think it’ll be fun. It’ll be great.”
