BLACKWATER pounced on another of Terrafirma's inconsistent showings to hack out a 96-86 win Wednesday that fanned the former's hopes of a playoff spot in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
George King overcame some early struggles from the field to finish with 26 points and 12 rebounds while Justin Chua bounced back big-time from a scoreless game to churn out 17 points and 12 boards for his best performance in the mid-season conference thus far.
Mike Ayonayon accounted for 15 points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds while Jaydee Tungcab added 11 points, five rebounds, as many assists and two steals in helping the Bossing notch their second win against seven losses.
Blackwater stays at 11th, but has three remaining games which it hopes to win to forge a possible tie for the eighth and last quarterfinals spot.
Coach Jeff Cariaso is certainly keeping an eye out for such a scenario following the game which was a far cry from the one his Blackwater side showed in dropping four straight games, the most recent one a 63-86 defeat to Barangay Ginebra last Sunday.
Sponsored content:
"No doubt it was better," said Cariaso of his Bossing's performance that had them shrugging off an early double-digit deficit before starting to fully take control of the match with a crucial run spanning the third and fourth quarters.
"We feel like there has to be a focus and we always talk about defense because that in itself would generate our offense and get us into what we wanna do quicker. The only thing I told them was, if you get stops then that will give the opportunity to attack and that's what happened," added Cariaso.
The loss was Terrafirma's 10th in as many games, but Cariaso dismissed suggestions that his team gained additional prop for going up against a winless side. "The fact that you lose four in a row, that in itself is a motivation," he said.
"I think despite who we were going to face tonight... it just happened to be Terrafirma at this moment. The idea is to just keep pushing. It hasn't been a smooth road for us this conference so I'd like to say our will, our intensity, our mindset, are always being challenged. So we have to understand that this is all part of basketball and that was one of the things I tried to express to the boys," offered Cariaso.
"Tonight, they stepped up and they were ready. I told them tonight was a must-win game. Pretty simple."
Sponsored content:
Brandon Edwards notched 29 points and 16 rebounds and Louie Sangalang and Brent Paraiso each chipped in at least 11 points for Terrafirma.
But the Dyip's failure to sink only half of the 38 free throws awarded them, plus an on-and-off game on both ends of the court, told heavily on their bid to hold on to an early 10-point lead.
The Bossing were actually trailing at 63-67 late in the third period before King's six straight points highlighted a 17-1 surge that gave it an 80-68 advantage which they would stretch to 84-71 and maintain at 96-83, going to the last 1:55 of the game. (NC)
The Scores :
BLACKWATER 96 - King 26, Chua 17, Ayonayon 15, Tungcab 11, David 8, Suerte 7, Escoto 4, Casio 2, Ponferrada 2, Jopia 2, Montalbo 2, Guinto 0.
TERRAFIRMA 86 - Edwards 29, Sangalang 17, Paraiso 12, Pringle 9, Nonoy 9, Ferrer 7, Carino 2, Romeo 1, Hernandez 0, Manuel 0, Ramos 0, Catapusan 0.
QUARTERS : 34-30, 45-49, 71-67, 96-86
