MANILA: Blackwater is treading uncharted waters, really uncharted. The Elite got the marginal basket from Denok Miranda with 4.2 seconds left on Sunday night, with an 86-84 victory over Meralco extending Blackwater’s franchise-best start for the early lead in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
With that comes newfound respect from the rest of the field and playing with the proverbial bull’s eye in its back from now on.
“What’s going through my mind right now is that other the teams will be preparing harder for us,” Blackwater coach Leo Isaac said, admitting that this will be a far departure from how the Elite were received in their first two seasons in the league.
“That’s how it was in our first two seasons,” said Isaac, whose wards brought the tail of the 12-team field in four of their first six conferences. “But now, you can slowly see some glitter (in the way we play) and hopefully, the team develops to its full potential.”
The biggest reason why the Elite are playing way above expectations is rookie Mac Belo, who scored 25 points and had the block of the night that set up Miranda for that game-winning, off-balanced running jumper.
Belo, the first overall pick in the complicated rookie Draft, had 12 of his total in the fourth, counting a triple with 1:40 remaining that forged the game’s last tie at 84.
And after he was done with his offensive heroics, the 6-foot-4 former King Tamaraw of Far Eastern in the UAAP blocked a shot by Reynel Hugnatan on the other end, forcing a Meralco turnover that led to Miranda making what turned out to be the game winner.
The Bolts, who finished second to Barangay Ginebra in the Governors’ Cup last season, still had a chance to send the game to overtime or win it outright after Miranda missed the bonus free throw off a foul by Chris Newsome in that drive. Whether it was by design or otherwise, the Bolts, though, elected to take a three-point shot, which newly-acquired swingman Joseph Yeo missed terribly at the buzzer.
“We need games like this one where we can show our character,” Isaac added.
Kyle Pascual scored 13 points and Miranda finished with 11 and seven assists.
Cliff Hodge paced the Bolts with 14 points with rookie Jonathan Grey firing 11 like Newsome.
“We have never been in this position before,” Isaac said, when someone pointed out that they were leading the conference. “Everyone will be after us now.”
Meanwhile, TNT KaTropa gutted out a 108-103 victory over Barangay Ginebra later in the night, doing what the Gin Kings are famous for — rally from seemingly insurmountable odds.
The Texters overhauled a 14-point deficit at the halfway point of the fourth period, getting the goods from Ranidel de Ocampo as TNT bounced back from a loss in its debut and made sure that the Gin Kings would get off on the wrong foot.
De Ocampo hit 15 of his 22 points in the fourth — all of them inside the last seven minutes — to anchor the TNT rally as the Texters won without new head coach Nash Racela and with top gun Jason Castro sitting out a second straight game.
“We had a rough first game and we still have a lot of work to do,” interim coach Josh Reyes said. “It was our advantage that this was just Ginebra’s first game and I am not counting on that (Ginebra collapse) happening again.”
There were a total of seven players in twin digits for the Texters and the balanced scoring put to waste the mammoth 27-point game of Ginebra point guard LA Tenorio.
TNT doubled the Ginebra output in the fourth, 32-16.
With that comes newfound respect from the rest of the field and playing with the proverbial bull’s eye in its back from now on.
“What’s going through my mind right now is that other the teams will be preparing harder for us,” Blackwater coach Leo Isaac said, admitting that this will be a far departure from how the Elite were received in their first two seasons in the league.
“That’s how it was in our first two seasons,” said Isaac, whose wards brought the tail of the 12-team field in four of their first six conferences. “But now, you can slowly see some glitter (in the way we play) and hopefully, the team develops to its full potential.”
The biggest reason why the Elite are playing way above expectations is rookie Mac Belo, who scored 25 points and had the block of the night that set up Miranda for that game-winning, off-balanced running jumper.
Belo, the first overall pick in the complicated rookie Draft, had 12 of his total in the fourth, counting a triple with 1:40 remaining that forged the game’s last tie at 84.
And after he was done with his offensive heroics, the 6-foot-4 former King Tamaraw of Far Eastern in the UAAP blocked a shot by Reynel Hugnatan on the other end, forcing a Meralco turnover that led to Miranda making what turned out to be the game winner.
The Bolts, who finished second to Barangay Ginebra in the Governors’ Cup last season, still had a chance to send the game to overtime or win it outright after Miranda missed the bonus free throw off a foul by Chris Newsome in that drive. Whether it was by design or otherwise, the Bolts, though, elected to take a three-point shot, which newly-acquired swingman Joseph Yeo missed terribly at the buzzer.
“We need games like this one where we can show our character,” Isaac added.
Kyle Pascual scored 13 points and Miranda finished with 11 and seven assists.
Cliff Hodge paced the Bolts with 14 points with rookie Jonathan Grey firing 11 like Newsome.
“We have never been in this position before,” Isaac said, when someone pointed out that they were leading the conference. “Everyone will be after us now.”
Meanwhile, TNT KaTropa gutted out a 108-103 victory over Barangay Ginebra later in the night, doing what the Gin Kings are famous for — rally from seemingly insurmountable odds.
The Texters overhauled a 14-point deficit at the halfway point of the fourth period, getting the goods from Ranidel de Ocampo as TNT bounced back from a loss in its debut and made sure that the Gin Kings would get off on the wrong foot.
De Ocampo hit 15 of his 22 points in the fourth — all of them inside the last seven minutes — to anchor the TNT rally as the Texters won without new head coach Nash Racela and with top gun Jason Castro sitting out a second straight game.
“We had a rough first game and we still have a lot of work to do,” interim coach Josh Reyes said. “It was our advantage that this was just Ginebra’s first game and I am not counting on that (Ginebra collapse) happening again.”
There were a total of seven players in twin digits for the Texters and the balanced scoring put to waste the mammoth 27-point game of Ginebra point guard LA Tenorio.
TNT doubled the Ginebra output in the fourth, 32-16.
