SUTTON’S EXPRESS DELIVERY
Surprising could be the best word to describe how Dominique Sutton made his presence felt in his PBA debut for Air21.
The 27-year-old forward from North Carolina Central and Kansas State opened the gates firing, scoring eight points in the first quarter, setting the tone for a lead which would blow up to as big as 17 in the second half.
And when the E-Painters got back in the game and were breathing down the Express’ necks with the lead down to six in the final minute, 97-91, it was the 6-foot-5 Sutton who came up with the biggest basket in his PBA debut.
He drove to the basket, faked stingy Rain or Shine defenders Gabe Norwood and Jireh Ibañes, and scored against reinforcement Arizona Reid to give Air21 a 99-91 lead with 27.1 ticks remaining.
As Air21 took a 103-96 victory, Sutton finished with a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, and most importantly, he led the franchise to its first win against the Elasto Painters since 2011.
“It’s pretty good for the organization. Its my first time here in the Philippines and playing for Air21, it felt good to get game number one. We got eight more to go, we’ll see what happens,” Sutton said.
It might not be that obvious, but the big man had just a few practices with the team since arriving last Thursday.
“He only played for a few practices but at least, he was able to give us a lot of energy,” said Air21 coach Franz Pumaren of his import.
“With Dominique, we established our inside presence aside from Asi (Taulava) being there,” he added. “He won’t be pushed around, but he still has to learn the style of play in the PBA.”
For his part, Sutton said, “I feel pretty good to have a big guy on the team. Asi is a veteran player, so he knows what he has to do and I’ll do what I’ll do.”
For Sutton, who had a two-season D-League stint with the Tulsa 66ers and last played for Ikaros Kallitheas BC in Greece, the short time to familiarize himself to the PBA style of basketball isn’t much of a problem at all.
“I feel pretty good. Coming from Greece playing not so well there, and being out here and getting my confidence back in playing basketball, I took 10 days off, so coming in to get my wind back on the court, it felt pretty good,” he said. “I like the physicality of the game, and coming here, I have to adjust a little bit.”
Sutton admitted that he is still not in tip-top shape, but promised that once he gets his grills going, he’ll deliver more wins for the Express.
“Once I get the wind a little bit, get my legs back underneath me, I think I can bring a defensive intensity in rebounding here,” he said.
“Just being more aggressive a little bit and picking my poise in times of the game where I can score the basketball a little bit, on defense a lot more, get the feel of how the referees call the game and how the league is played, so I just have to adjust. We’ll see how it goes from here.” (RL)
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