NLEX found its bearings at the right time to fashion a come-from-behind 105-102 victory over Blackwater as a fitting tribute to interim coach Adonis Tierra Friday in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Earl Clark had another monster game with 38 points and 25 rebounds, but the help of the locals led by Justin Chua and Kevin Alas proved indispensable in the Road Warriors' follow-up to their 96-90 win over former coach Yeng Guiao and Rain or Shine last week.
"The good thing here, hindi bumigay ang mga bata. 'Yun ang pinaka-importante," said Tierra, a long-time assistant who is set to give way to head coach Frankie Lim when the latter finally takes over in their next game on Saturday.
Both Tierra and Clark also gave a large chunk of the credit to the team defense, which enabled them to overhaul as much as a 16-point deficit and unleash a killer 19-2 run from an 85-95 deficit inside the last five minutes of the game.
"Today was a tough matchup. We didn't shoot as well but we stayed with it. We started to get some defensive stops in the third quarter and in the fourth and it paid off," said Clark who made only one of his first five shots but still wound-up shooting 17-of-27 overall while adding four assists and three blocks.
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"In the third quarter medyo nakuha na namin ang depensa... kaya medyo gumanda na depensa namin," echoed Tierra.
Despite their early struggles from beyond the arc the Road Warriors still managed to bury a pair of deep ones in the second half with Clark throwing one up a couple of steps from the halfcourt line to make it 72-81 at the end of the third period.
Perhaps bigger was the one from the right corner by Chua off Alas' kick-out that knotted the game up at 97 and seemed to have snuffed out the fight from the Bossing, who came up empty in their next ffive thrusts while Alas, Clark and Matt Nieto provided the finishing touches to the win.
Don Trollano mainly helped Clark keep NLEX in the game and finished with 18 points and eight boards while Alas added 16 points, Nieto 10 and Chua nine points.
The loss, which came a day after coach ASriel Vanguardia celebrated his 50th birthdsay and Baser Amer his 30th, dropped Blackwater to a 1-2 slate.
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After dropping 24 points in a 97-85 win over Phoenix Super LPG, Amer continued his hot scoring with 26 points while Carl Kurtwig again flirted with a triple double, notching 18 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. Even Ato Ular chipped in 10 points and eight caroms.
All those, however, went for naught when the Bossing failed to counter the Road Warriors' intensity and aggression on both ends of the court in the fourth period.
