Blackwater’s Erram gets big confidence boost with win over ex-teammate Slaughter

Delfin Dioquino

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Blackwater’s Erram gets big confidence boost with win over ex-teammate Slaughter
Poy Erram was Greg Slaughter's back-up center at Ateneo, and looked like he more than held his own

MANILA, Philippines.- Poy Erram didn’t just hold his own against Barangay Ginebra’s twin towers, he looked like a star in his own right after the Blackwater Elite pulled off a statement 94-77 victory over the league’s crowd darlings.

Erram scattered 22 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks to help Blackwater hand Ginebra its first loss of the season and was a pivotal cog in containing Ginebra’s giant frontcourt in Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar. 

Although Slaughter still tallied 20 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists while Aguilar had 14 markers, 8 boards and 4 dishes, it was enough for Blackwater to notch its second win in 3 games and force a 5-team logjam at second place. 

What most people do not know is that Erram played as backup for Slaughter during their stints with the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles. And to the Elite’s big man, it will always be a big confidence boost to get a win over one of the league’s top centers. 

“Malaking pampataas ng confidence para sa akin kasi syempre teammates kami tapos magkalaban na, tapos ayun nga, against them nanalo kami,” said Erram. “Tapos ‘yung caliber ni Greg hindi basta basta kasi naglaro siya sa Gilas, marami akong natutunan sa matchup na ‘yun.” 

(It is a huge boost in my confidence because we were former teammates and now we play for different teams and we won. Greg’s caliber is top notch since he already played for Gilas. I learned a lot from that matchup.) 

The win marked the Elite’s second win over Ginebra in franchise history and just the first in the Philippine Cup but Erram dismissed the thought that he is the “puzzle piece” Blackwater had missed in the past few years to become a competitive squad.

“Hindi ko iniisip na ganoon e kasi every person sa team namin, crucial e. Sa baba ng bench hanggang sa starters, crucial talaga siya.”

(I do not see it like that since every person in our team is crucial. From the bench to the starters, everyone is crucial.) 

For the former 15th overall pick in 2013, you cannot just overlook a bunch of guys who have “nothing to lose.” 

“Mas aggressive kami. ‘Yun nga bata, so unpredictable. ‘Yung effort namin nandun e, maeffort talaga kami, dun kami nagdadagdag masyado kasi mga bata pa, fresh legs pa. Tsaka malaki pa ang iiimprove namin kasi nga mga bata, galing pa sa iba ibang team. Para sa akin, galing ako sa ibang team, hindi kami nabigyan ng importansya so nothing to lose.” 

(We are aggressive. We are young and unpredictable. We really exert our effort and it helps that we are young, we still have fresh legs. We still have a lot to improve because we are still young. We came from different teams and for us who were not given much importance, there is nothing to lose.) – Rappler.com

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Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.