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SERVICES
THE INQUIRER COMPANY
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04
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25
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2024
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SERVICES
THE INQUIRER COMPANY
04
25
2024
BLACKWATER is slowly but surely getting Mahindra’s number.
The Elite banked on a big fourth quarter to beat the Enforcers 110-102 Sunday and move into the win-column of the 2016 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Reil Cervantes and Carlo Lastimosa combined for 28 of Blackwater’s 33 points in the fourth quarter, by themselves outscoring the entire Mahindra crew by one.
With the Enforcers’ own touch going sour, the Elite had little trouble rising from an 85-86 count before erecting as much as a 110-97 spread, only 39 seconds left.
Blackwater thus bounced back from a 102-108 loss to Tropang TNT last Wednesday after notching a second straight win over the team formerly known as Kia. The Elite also beat the Enforcers in the Philippine Cup to make their first-ever quarterfinals appearance.
Augustus Gilchrist finished with 34 points and seven rebounds, but only three Mahindra locals managed to score in double digits as the Enforcers failed to follow up their111-98 surprise over GlobalPort last Friday.
In contrast, Lastimosa wound up with 26 points, Cervantes matched his season-high with 24, while Art dela Cruz and Raphy Reyes each scored at least 12 markers.
Even MJ Rhett notched 19 points and 18 rebounds, a big improvement from his 16 and seven debut against TNT.
The way his charges did their part on the other end of the court pleased Blackwater coach Leo Isaac more.
“The challenge was for everybody to play honest defense and they did,” said Isaac. “They saw (KG) Canaleta hit back-to-back 3s in the second quarter and we agreed to challenge everybody. No more 3-pointers.”
Indeed, after making five triples in the first half en route to a 49-43 lead at intermission, Mahindra could only make three more for the rest of the game. Two came in the final canto, but they were too little too late.
Blackwater also played minus injured frontliners JP Erram, James Sena and Jason Ballesteros and this adds to Isaac’s pleasure.
“Going to this game we only had two legit big guys, Frank Golla and Rhett. We had to dig deep,” Isaac pointed out.
It took a while, but Blackwater started really going in the third period when it outscored Mahindra 34-26, with Reyes scoring 10 of his points and Rhett nine, to go up 77-75.
The Scores:
BLACKWATER 110 – Lastimosa 26, Cervantes 24, Dela Cruz 19, Rhett 19, Reyes 12, Cortez 5, Gamalinda 2, Golla 2, Bulawan 1, Canada 0.
MAHINDRA 102 – Gilchrist 34, Dehesa 14, Canaleta 13, Ramos 10, Yee 8, Jaime 7, Bagatsing 5, Pinto 5, DiGregorio 2, Guinto 2, Revilla 2, Alvarez 0, Hubalde 0.
Quarters: 25-20, 43-49, 77-75, 110-102.
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