Blackwater fends off GlobalPort
Blackwater built momentum in the third quarter and kept GlobalPort at bay as the Elite stopped the Batang Pier, 99-91, to seize solo second place in the PBA Philippine Cup at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City Wednesday night.
Ronjay Buenafe hit clutch shots to spark their decisive third-quarter surge and the whole Blackwater team played tough all the way to complete the victory that had them closing in on frontliner San Miguel
Beer (4-1).
With second back-to-back triumphs in the tourney, the Elite improved to 4-2 — already a milestone for the franchise since it had never posted more than three wins in any of all previous PBA tourneys.
Mac Belo, John Pinto and Arthur dela Cruz, together with Buenafe, piled up double-digit outputs as Blackwater pulled a follow-up on its 96-85 triumph over NLEX the last time out.
In the process, the Elite inched ahead of the Batang Pier, the Alaska Milk Aces, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the TNT KaTropa Texters who are tied at third at 3-2.
After building a 10-point lead at 77-67 at the end of the third, Belo and his teammates sustained a sterling effort till the end as they dealt GlobalPort a second loss in their last three games.
A big blow on GlobalPort was Stanley Pringle being tossed out of the game after committing a second flagrant foul with 2:21 left in the third.
Pringle, the other half of the lethal GlobalPort duo with Terrence Romeo, was able to play only 23:29 minutes, putting in 14 points, four rebounds and two assists against three turnovers.
Belo delivered 20 points and six rebounds while Pinto, Dela Cruz and Buenafe added 15, 13 and 11 markers, respectively.
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