December 27, 2017

Phoenix demolishes Kia to give returning coach Louie Alas his first win

PHOENIX finally snapped out of its rut while extending Kia's in the process.

The Fuel Masters displayed sterling plays on both ends of the court as they rolled to a 125-102 victory over the Picanto Wednesday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.

JC Intal bounced back from a dismal first game to lead a balanced attack and the other Phoenix players also did their part on the other end of the court that enabled it to end a 10-game losing streak dating back to the last Governors Cup and extended by a 96-104 loss to San Miguel Beer on opening day.

Louie Alas said a proper mindset was brought by his team versus Kia, resulting in his first win as Phoenix head coach and in wire-to-wire fashion at that.

"Against Kia, ang sabi ko, hindi tayo p'wedeng pumunta sa laro expecting na manalo," related the long-time assistant at Alaska until after the last season.

Sponsored content:
"Ang pinakamagandang individual defense ilabas natin dahil very talented sila individually."

It was the second loss in as many games for Kia and came after it failed to follow up its fine opening performance in a 115-119 loss to NLEX.

Rashawn McCarthy scored a game-high 22 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists, while Philip Paniamogan, Eric Camson, foul-plagued Jackson Corpuz and JayR Reyes also finished with at least 11 points each.

But the Picanto committed 26 turnovers and their offense repeatedly sputtered in the face of the Fuel Masters' defense, resulting in a 14th straight loss dating back to the last Commissioner's and Governors Cups.

Intal had a lot to do with it after notching only two points against the Beermen. He wound up with 15 to share team scoring honors with Chua and Wright. Gelo Alolino, RJ Jazul, Doug Kramer and Joseph Eriobu also wound up with at least 11 points each.

Sponsored content:
Even LA Revilla got into the act and helped atone for the absence of the flu-stricken Jeff Chan by scoring only six points but issuing four dimes and stealing five times in 22 minutes off thhe bench against his former team.

Phoenix actually had 23 miscues of its own, but its 53-39 advantage off the boards and more efficient 9-of-16 three-point shooting, coupled with its 17 steals, all combined to give it near-total domination of the game.

So one-sided was the match that the difference grew to as big as 125-99 following five straight points by Eriobu.

That one-sided trend was fully evident by the third quarter when the Fuel Masters established several 22-point spreads before going to the final canto with an 88-69 bulge.

Phoenix seemed all set to blow Kia away right in the first half, unleashing a couple of surges in the second quarter to post leads of 41-21 and 51-31.

Camson had other ideas, however.

The undersized stretch power forward, who scored a career-high 24 points in the opening day's 115-119 loss to NLEX, scored 11 of his 13 first half points in the last 50 seconds of the period to bring the Picanto within 40-53 at the half.

There was simply no stopping Phoenix, however, as its multi-pronged attack once again got going and hardly took its foot off the accelerator.

Kia was really in it only in the opening quarter, but Phoenix readily laid bare its intentions by repeatedly pressing for 11 turnovers, four off those off swipes, to start pulling away 24-14.


The scores:

Phoenix 125 - Intal 15, Chua 15, Wright 15, Alolino 13, Jazul 13, Perkins 12, Kramer 12, Eriobu 11, Dehesa 7, Gamboa 6, Revilla 6, Cortes 0, Guevarra 0, Wilson 0.

Kia 102 - McCarthy 22, Camson 15, Paniamogan 13, Corpuz 12, Reyes 11, Galanza 7, Ababou 7, Jamon 5, Yee 4, Khobuntin 3, Celda 2, Sara 0.

Quarters: 24-14, 53-40, 88-69, 125-102.