LONG out of the PBA Commissioner's Cup playoffs, NLEX may have just towed Phoenix Pulse with it.
With Olu Ashaolu coming alive in the fourth quarter, the Road Warriors managed to end its conference campaign on a winning note with an 87-85 escape over the Fuel Masters Friday at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Ashaolu scored 10 of his 17 points in the payoff period while Jericho Cruz made the decisive play with a big rebound and a free throw that proved dagger in the dying seconds to help NLEX overcome Phoenix's gritty challenge in the endgame.
In the end, the Road Warriors emerged with only their third win in 11 games. The victory may not have been enough to lift them out of 12th place, but good enough to give them a boost in morale for the season-ending Governors Cup.
"Buti na lang na-survive namin," said winning coach Yeng Guiao, who himself contributed to making the game close by vehemently complaining a non-call, getting slapped for two technical fouls and getting ejected, with his team just ahead 83-78, in the last 42.9 seconds.
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Matthew Wright sank the freebies to make it an 80-84 count and then fed Justin Chua underneath to keep the Fuel Masters within 82-84.
"Anyway, this is just a sendoff for us, on a winning note," added Guiao. "We'll take the win, however it is, and start preparing for the next conference. We'll take a short break, but after that we'll start working on our preparations."
The loss, its third straight, may prove to be a costly one for Phoenix.
Relegated to a 4-7 slate overall, the Fuel Masters dropped a rung to ninth and are now left hoping 4-6 Alaska, Meralco, 3-6 and taking on NorthPort later in the evening, and/or San Miguel Beer (4-5) do not also get to five wins.
Those tied for the eighth and last spot in the quarterfinals square off in a knockout game.
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Phoenix did try despite a bad scoring night for Wright and Jason Perkins and Richard Howell getting hobbled, not by his right knee that got injured in a 108-128 loss to SMB just last Wednesday, but by fouls.
Still, Wright finished with 16 points, but only on a 3-of-15 shooting from the field, while Howell added 11 markers to complement RJ Jazul's gamehigh 20 points. Alex Mallari and Chua also chipped in at least 11 points each. Perkins just had two points on 1-of-8 shooting.
Ashaolu's output was 11 below his average, but he did haul down a gamehigh 11 rebounds and issued five assists with Kenneth Ighalo the lone other Road Warrior in double figures with 14.
Howell picked up three fouls in the opening quarter, got slapped with his fourth 1:18 left in the second. and picked up his fifth barely 22 seconds into the second half.
Howell did return in the fourth quarter in helping make it a close game with his last jumper keeping Phoenix within 75-83.
It was a triple each by Wright and Jazul that really made the game close, however, with the last pegging the score at 85-86, still 6.2 seconds left.
Intentionally fouled, Ashaolu muffed two charities but Cruz snared the offensive rebound off the last miss.
After Cruz's split in the last 2.6 seconds and Phoenix without any timeout left, the Fuel Masters executed a long inbound to Wright but he was way off in an off-balanced heave before the final buzzer sounded.
With Howell sidelined and only Chua left as the lone legitimate inside threat for Phoenix, NLEX wasted little time in jacking its lead to as large as 52-32, only to go dry over a five-minute stretch that enabled Phoenix, led by Jazul, come within 54-58.
Behind JR Quinahan, the Road Warriors managed to stretch their lead to 70-58, only to see five different Phoenix players score to keep it within striking distance.(NC)
The scores:
NLEX 87 - Ashaolu 17, Ighalo 14, Quinahan 9, Paniamogan 9, Erram 7, Cruz 6, Lao 5, Tiongson 5, Fonacier 5, Taulava 4, Soyud 4, Varilla 2, Baguio 0, Galanza 0.
Phoenix 85 - Jazul 20, Wright 16, Mallari 13, Howell 11, Intal 6, Marcelo 6, Perkins 2, Napoles 0, Wilson 0, Guevarra 0, Gamboa 0.
Quarterscores: 21-11, 45-32, 65-54, 87-85.
