ELITE GUARD MAKING HEADS TURN
Seeing fellow expansion team Kia climb the standings, Blackwater was deeply motivated to beat the Carnival when they clashed at The Arena in San Juan Saturday.
“Definitely it was a motivation for us seeing them with more wins and them being able to beat champion teams, we really wanted to win this game,” said Elite guard Brian Heruela.
And they did, handily beating Kia, 115-104 on Carnival playing-coach Manny Pacquiao’s send-off.
Heruela was stellar in Blackwater’s second franchise win with his near triple-double of 27 points, a career-high, eight rebounds, and seven assists.
“I’m just happy that things went my way,” said the league’s leading passer with 5.6 dimes per outing. “I’m just thankful that the coaching staff and my teammates tell me what I have to do.”
So far, the rookie from the University of Cebu says he’s slowly getting his game going, just like how he fared in the D-League a year ago.
“For me, I always try to involve my teammates as a point guard,” he said. “I just focus on my team and what else we can improve on so we can pull off some wins.”
But Heruela knows that they still have a lot of room for improvement.
“This win is really important for us. It’s a morale booster. But we’re taking it one game at a time and we’re looking forward to our next game, prepare harder and give our all in our next games.”
This early, Heruela is certainly proving he belongs with the big boys.(RL)
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