PETRON BLAZE REMAINS UNSCATHED
Petron Blaze worked on a key run midway through the last quarter and held off Alaska at endgame, pulling off an 86-85 heart-stopper in the PLDT myDSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
With tremendous boost from Junemar Fajardo, the Boosters seized a 78-69 lead on an 11-to-nothing tear and watched the Aces run out of time in their comeback bid in this Petron Blaze Saturday special.
“Alaska came out and played very well tonight. It’s good we staved them off though we missed a lot of free throws in the end,” said Petron Blaze coach Gee Abanilla.
“It’s a character win. The players refused to lose in the dying seconds,” Abanilla added.
Both teams refused to lose.
Despite a six-point deficit, 79-85, in the last 1:14, the Aces threatened, 85-86, in the closing seconds. They eventually bowed as Arwind Santos intercepted their long inbound pass in the final second.
The Boosters overcame no less than six missed foul shots in the last 23 seconds, thus, stretching their unbeaten run to five games.
Fajardo outdueled Sonny Thoss, asserting himself hardest in the payoff period as the Boosters sent the Aces reeling with a fourth loss against two wins.
The 6-foot-10 Cebuano behemoth piled up 14 of his 20 points in the final canto and also got 12 rebounds in yet another double-double performance.
“He’s demanding a lot of double team and it’s good that he made his free throws. It’s one facet of his game he’s trying to improve,” said Abanilla.
The two teams fought on even terms through the first 40 minutes of play, engaging in 13 deadlocks and the same number of lead changes.
But then Fajardo came through with one big play after another as the Boosters opened the 78-69 gap.
The Aces crawled to within one in the dying seconds on back-to-back treys by Jayvee Casio and RJ Jazul.
And they got one final chance to salvage the game as Paolo Hubalde muffed two charities off a foul by Jazul, before Marcio Lassiter missed another one off Alaska’s excessive timeout Tony de la Cruz called with one second to go
Alas, the Aces couldn’t make a decent attempt, and the Boosters stayed unscathed.
Chris Lutz returned from a one-game layoff and contributed 15 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Arwind Santos, Lassiter, Hubalde and Doug Kramer also had significant contributions for the Petron team which still played sans Alex Cabagnot, Chris Ross, Ronald Tubid and Yousef Taha.
Jazul paced the losing team with 18 markers with 3-of-6 three-point shooting, 3-of-8 twinners and 3-of-5 charities. (SB)
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