March 24, 2017

Floodbuster crash into the win column

MAHINDRA went up against an NLEX squad that couldn't shoot straight Wednesday and got away with a breakthrough 89-81 win in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

James White notched 30 points and 22 rebounds while his local teammates took turns helping out as the Floodbuster finally crashed the win-column after opening up the mid-season tourney with back-to-back losses.

The likes of Reden Celda, Ryan Arana, Gary David, LA Revilla and even Mark Yee each played crucial roles, enabling Mahindra to post as much as a 51-36 third quarter lead before easily shrugging off any NLEX threat.

“Extremely gritty win tonight,” said Mahindra shot-caller Chris Gavina. “We’re moving past our previous mistakes, missed assignments, and lack of execution.”

Gavina also said his charges also stayed truer to the system he's been trying to instill from the start of the season. “We played to our identity tonight, toughness, mentally as well as physically, against a well-coached NLEX side,” he said.

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The road block, meanwhile, remains up for the Road Warriors, who got relegated to the bottom of the 12-team field after absorbing its third straight setback.

Wayne Chism wound up with 28 points and 21 rebounds and Jansen Rios added a conference-high 15 points, but NLEX as a whole made only 33 of 87 field goal tries, including 2-of-26 from beyond the arc.

Compounding the Road Warriors' woes, they missed half of their 26 free throw attempts, negating their 60-52 advantage off the boards and plus-20 domination of inside points.

The bricks came the most for NLEX during the payoff period, where it made only seven of 21 shots, helping take the steam out of its fightback to within 70-74.

A last-gasp charge from a 70-84 deficit put the Road Warriors within five, but charities by Revilla and Arana, the last pegging the count at 87-79, only 17 ticks left, practically put the game away.

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Sean Anthony could have helped NLEX, but he has to rest a week due to a strained knee as he joined Enrico Villanueva (left knee) on the sidelines.

Mahindra would simply not be denied, although White got to score only two points in the final frame. Besides, he set the tone earlier on with eight of his points in the third quarter before Celda and Arana took charge.

Celda and Arana scored six points each as the Floodbuster went on a 12-2 run spanning the two last quarters to take a 74-62 lead.

White missed only one out of nine shots and already had 20 points and 15 rebounds in the first half while also spearheading an 8-1 run to end the second quarter that gave Mahindra a 44-34 lead.

Chism had his own third double-double in the bag with 10 and 10, but got only a smattering of local support, mostly from fellow starter Raul Soyud and Eric Camson.

The Floodbuster actually sat on as much as a 36-24 lead, but the Road Warriors gamely fought back and had Camson leading the way as they whittled the difference to just two points.