Blackwater stays alive in playoff race, nips Phoenix

Delfin Dioquino

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Blackwater stays alive in playoff race, nips Phoenix
Poy Erram drops his 7th double-double of the season with 12 points, 19 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks for the Blackwater Elite, who move to solo 8th place

MANILA, Philippines – Fighting for dear life, the Blackwater Elite remained composed down the stretch and eked out an 83-78 win over the Phoenix Fuel Masters in the 2018 PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum Wednesday, February 21.

The Elite, trailing 74-75 with 5 minutes left in the game, went on an 8-2 run to take the lead 82-77 and clamped down on defensive to stay alive in the playoff hunt behind a 5-6 record.

Phoenix had a chance to narrow the gap in the final 47 seconds but couldn’t buy a basket as an RJ Jazul triple completely missed the rim while Jeff Chan’s trey got denied by Poy Erram.

Erram dropped his 7th double-double of the season with 12 points, 19 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks for the Elite, who moved to solo 8th place.

Mike Digregorio, Mac Belo and Raymar Jose chipped in 14 points apiece in the win while Roi Sumang added 12 markers. 

“I challenged the players to prove themselves. I told them stories of how great players before were able to overcome such circumstances and came out winning and gaining more victories when they were facing situations like us,” said Blackwater head coach Leo Isaac.

It would have been an easy win for Blackwater had they made their free thows. The Elite missed 20 of their 40 attempts from the line.

Jason Perkins had 17 points and 6 rebounds for Phoenix, which dropped to 4-6 and forced a 3-team logjam with the Meralco Bolts and the TNT KaTropa at 9th place.

Doug Kramer finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds while Jeff Chan had 13 points and 8 assists in the loss.

The Scores:

Blackwater (83): DiGregorio 14, Belo 14, Jose 14, Sumang 12, Erram 12, Pinto 5, Sena 4, Palma 4, Cortez 3, Cruz 1, Javier 0, Banal 0, Marcelo 0, Neypes 0

Phoenix (78): Perkins 17, Jazul 13, Chan 13, Kramer 11, Alolino 10, Chua 6, Mendoza 6, Dehesa 2, Intal 0, Wilson 0, Eriobu 0, Guevarra 0, Cortes 0

Quarter scores: 14-19, 40-41, 65-65, 83-78.

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.