BLACKWATER keeps on passing the tough tests being thrown its way.
The Elite got additional high marks after emerging with a 113-111 victory over the NorthPort Batang Pier Wednesday that gave the former a share of the PBA Governors Cup lead at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Not even an early 18-point deficit and NorthPort's unrelenting pressure in the stretch could faze Blackwater, which hung tough and held on to realize a third win in as many games that moved it alongside idle Barangay Ginebra at the top.
That tie is set to be broken when the two co-leaders tangle Friday, but Elite coach Bong Ramos remains pleased with the way his charges, dead-last in the last Commissioner's Cup, continue to rise to the challenge.
"It was a test of character for the team," said Ramos, whose team's earlier victims were TNT and San Miguel Beer.
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"They really want to get a third win tonight. They want to face Ginebra on Friday coming off a win. It's a character-building and test (for us)."
Henry Walker, Poy Erram and Mike Digregorio starred as usual for Blackwater but the less heralded John Pinto, Mac Belo and Chris Javier did their part in the stretches that mattered.
Walker capped his 24-point, 15-rebound game with a go-ahead triple and Digregorio's layup gave him 19 points and Blackwater a 104-99 spread.
It was Javier's back-to-back baskets that stretched the lead to 108-101 before Pinto sealed his eight-point, 13-assist effort with a booming triple that made it 111-105.
The door remained open for NorthPort when Rashad Woods drained his own triple to make it a three-point game and Digregorio lost the ball on a trap, still 19 seconds left.
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But Woods, Sean Anthony and Mo Tautuaa each missed a three-point try and Digregorio's freebies and Nico Elorde's buzzer-beating triple pegged the final score.
The defeat was NorthPort's fifth in as many games, notwithstanding Woods' game-highs of 31 points and 17 rebounds. He, however, was limited to just seven points in the entire second half.Stanley Pringle, Anthony and Elorde had at least 12 points each, but the Batang Pier simply could not sustain the fine start they had when Woods made his first five shots, including two triples.
Ramos said one big factor is the tinkering he made on the players he fielded that enabled them to launch a furious uprising in the two middle quarters which razed a 35-53 deficit.
"Meron akong mga adjustments na ginawa na hindi pa namin ginawa in our first two games and hindi pa siguro nakikita ng NorthPort," said Ramos.
The Elite indeed fully disrupted the Batang Pier's game enough to forge three deadlocks, the last at 99.
That tight finish was only a slight possibility after NorthPort went on a tear and easily took the opening quarter 39-23 and even posted as much as a 53-35 spread.
Any thoughts of Blackwater folding up right there as it has done so many times in the past soon vanished, however.
Woods' layup made it a 57-42 count before the Batang Pier went eerily silent. The Elite were quick to pounce and went on an 11-0 run, capped by Walker's back-to-back triples, to whittle the deficit to just 53-57 before Roi Sumang inched them closer with a trey of his own that pegged a 56-59 halftime count.
Renz Palma's layup and Pinto's drive even gave Blackwater a brief taste of the lead at 67-66 but Ryan Arana, Anthony and Tautuaa led a sustained attack that gave NorthPort an 87-79 lead going to the final canto.
The scores:
BLACKWATER 113 - Walker 24, DiGregorio 19, Erram 19, Belo 13, Sumang 9, Pinto 8, Zamar 6, Palma 4, Javier 4, Al-Hussaini 3, Maliksi 2, Jose 2.
NORTH PORT 111 - Woods 31, Pringle 18, Anthony 13, Elorde 12, Ara?a 9, Tautuaa 8, Taha 6, Grey 5, Guinto 4, Fortuna 3, Espinas 2, Gabayni 0.
Quarterscores: 23-39, 56-59, 79-87, 113-111.
