Purefoods blew away a third straight foe on Friday night to grab a piece of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup lead, but it didn’t exactly put a smile on coach Tim Cone’s face.

Cone’s second unit did the job for the Star Hotshots in the second half as Purefoods waylaid newcomer Blackwater, 98-86, which the multi-titled coach later on described as a “scattered” effort at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

“Our second unit busted the game open for us,” Cone said with a poker face after his charges climbed into a tie with idle Meralco for the early lead. “But we were scattered out there.

“We’ll take it (win) so we can build some momentum,” Cone continued.

The two-time Grand Slam-winning coach might have worn a long face because the game was the end of Marcus Blakely’s stand-in job as Purefoods gets reinforced by the bigger Daniel Orton starting Wednesday against NLEX.

“It’s pretty much a lock, but not a complete lock,” Cone said of Orton taking over. “It relay depends on how much his hand heals.”

Orton planed in earlier this week and saw Blakely dominate against Alaska. He was again at ringside to see the smaller Blakely shoot 23 points and grab 13 rebounds in just 34 minutes.

Which is probably why Cone wasn’t smiling at all.

“Marqus also needs to have his shoulder looked at, and he will probably do it in the (United) States so he can come back for us in the third conference (the Governors’ Cup),” Cone said. “I just hope he doesn’t need surgery.”

The Elite got 30 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists from import Marcus Douthit but still fell to 0-3 for the tournament and 0-14 since entering the league at the start of the season as one of two expansion franchises.

That streak in futility is just four losses shy of the all-time longest skid held by the 1980 Great Taste crew, but stands as the longest in the league in the last 15 seasons.

Marc Pingris scattered 14 points, Mark Barroca chipped in with 13 and Allein Maliksi and Justin Melton had 12 each with the high-leaping Melton joining Blakely in coming up with gravity-defying plays in the second half that got the crowd going.

Bryan Faundo was the second player in twin digits for the Elite with 14, with Brian Heruala shooting 10.

Blackwater trailed by as large as 17 points in the second half after giving the Hotshots a good fight in the first two periods where the Elite even led, 19-13 near the end of the first quarter.

Staying within striking distance of the leaders was Rain or Shine, which engaged Globalport in a fourth quarter shootout before scraping through, 104-98, in the first game.

Paul Lee scored 25 points and had nine of his total coming in the payoff frame as the Elasto Painters won for the second straight night to rise to 2-1.

Globalport, which trailed by as large as 18 points, crept to within three in the waning seconds mainly through the hot outside shooting of Terrence Romeo.

But the Batang Pier couldn’t quite complete the job as they fell to a second consecutive defeat after a conference-opening win.

Romeo, who had a great match-up with Lee the entire night, drained four triples in the fourth quarter alone, finishing with six to highlight a 29-point night and share team scoring honors with import CJ Leslie.

Lee made his presence felt in the clutch when he canned all six free throws awarded him, all of them keeping the Elasto Painters’ collective heads above water. He was 10-for-10 from the stripe.