Columbian revs up campaign
Columbian Dyip went full throttle and spoiled the longoverdue debut of Blackwater import Aaron Fuller, handing the Elite a 102-90 beating to boost their playoff drive in the PBA Governors Cup last night at MOA Arena.
Picking some momentum from their tough losing stand against TNT KaTropa last game, the Dyip came out charging at the Fuller-led Elite and raced to an early 28-15 spread to lay the foundation for their third win in five outings that put them on course for the quarterfinals.
In the other game, San Miguel outsteadied Magnolia in a frantic race to the finish, 90-89, to stay unbeaten in four games. The Hotshots dropped to 3-2, hurt by the injury that forced Romeo Travis out of action in the last 4:44.
The troika of Rashan McCarthy (25 spiked by seven triples), import Khapri Alston (24-20-3) and ace rookie CJ Perez (24-10-6) served as sparkplug while Reden Celda (12), Juami Tiongson (eight) and Jackson Corpuz provided solid support as the Dyip pulled off the wire-to-wire victory.
“It was an awesome game from the first quarter on,” Dyip coach Johnedel Cardel said, commending his charges from their defensive effort.
“We played good defense every quarter, limiting them
to quarter an average and that’s of really 22.5 per the goal. In our two losses, our defense was bad in the first half and though we managed to catch up in the second half, we couldn’t get the win so I emphasized defense in this game,” he added.
The Dyip limited the Elite to a 38.6 percent field goal overall (32-of-83) while making 42.2 percent of their shots (38 of 90).
Fuller, Blackwater’s original reinforcement who was sidelined by an ankle injury before the conference started, delivered a gamehigh 26 and 10 boards but failed to stop the Elite from falling to their third setback in four matches. Ray Parks Jr. backstopped Fuller with 21.