Mahindra survives Romeo’s explosion to win conference debut

MANILA, Philippines – The Mahindra Enforcers survived a huge scoring day from third-year star Terrence Romeo to win their debut in the 2016 PBA Commissioner’s Cup, 111-98, on Friday, February 12 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Mahindra received a well-balanced effort with 7 players scoring in double figures to hold on to their lead throughout the game and come up with critical points in the fourth quarter for the win.

“Everybody stepped up,” team coach Chito Victolero said after his team went up 1-0. “Everybody wants to prove something, and it’s within the system.”

Birthday boy KG Canaleta led his team in scoring with 20 points, all in the first half, while LA Revilla posted 17 points and 5 assists off the bench.

Import August Gilchrist didn’t fill up the stat sheet with only 10 points and 7 rebounds, but Mahindra’s head coach is pleased with what he brings to the team.

“I’m very happy, I’m very positive with AG because he’s a team player. He knows the system. He knows how to play with the locals. I’m very hopeful and I’m very positive with him,” Victolero said.

Romeo tied his career-high with 41 points but had 0 assists. Stanley Pringle struggled with only 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but did dish out 8 dimes.

The Batang Pier’s import, Brian Williams, finished with 13 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, and 7 turnovers. 

“We [needed] to control their perimeter players, but we [needed] also to make sure their role players, ma-limit rin namin (we’d limit them),” explained Victolero.

“It’s a total team effort. Before our preparation this conference, we worked on our consistency,” the head coach also said after his Enforcers won just twice in 11 games last conference.

The game was still on the line when Romeo hit a jumper to cut the Mahindra lead to 90-86 with 7:18 left. 

After a time-out, Revilla drew a foul and hit two free throws. Romeo then hit a 3-ball to counter, but Karl Dehesa then hit a triple off his own to cancel it out, 95-89.

After Dehesa hit another jumper to make the score 97-89 with 5:16 to go, Romeo took and missed a 3-ball. On the next play, Aldrech Ramos hit a huge 3 for Mahindra from the top of the key to extend his team’s lead to 11 and seal the win with 4:37 left.

Both teams shot 49% from the field, but Mahindra hit more 3-pointers, 13-6. The Enforcers led for all but 14 seconds of the contest.

Scores:

Mahindra (111): Canaleta 20, Revilla 17, Digragorio 14, Dehesa 12, Yee 11, Gilchrist 10, Guinto 10, Ramos 9, Pinto 5, Jaime 3.

GlobalPort (98): Romeo 41, Williams 13, Pringle 12, Mamaril 9, Jensen 6, Taha 6, Yeo 4, Semerad 3, Kramer 2, Sumang 2, Maierhofer 0, Pena 0, Uyloan 0.

Quarter scores: 31-23, 60-47, 82-76, 111-98 – Rappler.com