BLACKWATER banked on Reil Cervantes’s fourth-quarter explosion to beat Mahindra, 110-102, for its first win in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Cervantes unloaded 16 of his 24 points in the payoff period, including three triples that gave the Elite the needed separation and helped his team barge into the win column, while denying the Enforcers a 2-0 start.
MJ Rhett also had a solid game for Blackwater with 19 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks, while Carlo Lastimosa, who hit a personal-high 39 points in their previous game, had a team-high 26 markers for the Elite. Rookie Art de la Cruz chipped in 19 for the winning team.
“We have to dig deep on our three big guys,” said Elite Head Coach Leo Isaac, referring to Cervantes, de la Cruz and Gilbert Bulawan, as JP Erram (head injury) was not yet cleared to play after a bad fall in their previous play.
James Sena and Jason Ballesteros also did not suit up for the Elite due to injuries.
But Cervantes and de la Cruz were there to man the frontline of Blackwater and survived the 34-point game from Mahindra import August Gilchrist.
“Lastimosa is doing his usual thing, while [Mike] Cortez is orchestrating our offense. The challenge was for everybody to play honest defense,” Isaac added.
Staring an 85-86 deficit, Cervantes waxed hot for the Elite and engineered a 17-5 exchange capped by de la Cruz’s three-pointer to erect their biggest lead at 102-91 with two minutes left in the game.
The Enforcers never recovered from that Blackwater onslaught and absorbed their first loss after scoring a 111-98 win over GlobalPort.
Cervantes came off the bench and shot eight-of-14 from the field, while Raphy Reyes contributed 12 points for the Elite, who bounced back from a 102-108 loss to import-less Talk ‘N Text the last time out.
Karl Dehesa and Nino Cañaleta chipped in 14 and 13 markers, respectively, for Mahindra assistant mentor Chito Victolero. Aldrech Ramos netted 10 markers for the Enforcers.
Image credits: ROY DOMINGO