Chery Tiggo’s Khat Bell during a game against PLDT in the PVL Reinforced Conference.–PVL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Khat Bell played her best PVL game yet, pouring in 39 points to get Chery Tiggo back on the winning track in the PVL Reinforced Conference on Saturday.
Fresh from their first defeat to Creamline on Tuesday, Bell dropped 33 kills, five blocks, and an ace on top of 11 excellent receptions to survive PLDT, 25-19, 20-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-10, at Philsports Arena.
Bell tied PayMaya’s Tess Rountree for the fifth-best single-game scoring record but was convinced she could’ve had 50 if not for her lapses which would’ve set a new record and surpassed Marina Tushova’s record-setting 45 for Capital1 on Thursday. The next three highest scorers are Prisilla Rivera (44), Kia Bright (41), and Michelle Strizak (40).
READ: PVL: Khat Bell gets Chery Tiggo back on track with win over PLDT
Khat Bell on her 39-point explosion and Chery Tiggo coach KungFu Reyes on their bounce back wing. #PVL2024 @INQUIRERSports pic.twitter.com/JfQexviDAX
— Lance Agcaoili (@LanceAgcaoilINQ) August 3, 2024
“I should’ve done like 50. But like I said, those errors,” said Bell. “I mean, 39 points is alright but I had a lot of errors tonight, which I wish I wouldn’t have had. But obviously, the goal is to get three points tonight and I’ll take two, but 39 points is cool but I really don’t like the errors, honestly. I think I probably had 10 [errors] but I feel good. I’m glad we got the win tonight and that’s the positive thing.”
Chery Tiggo coach KungFu Reyes agreed with Bell, believing the best is yet to come for their team captain and reinforcement this midseason tournament.
“Khat can do more. That’s normal with her. It’s just like, minsan kasi syempre naka-shuffle din ‘yung bola namin, kailangan namin pagtrabahuhin ‘yung locals. Pero mostly talaga ng panggagalingan ng puntos namin eh ‘yung import,” Reyes said. “Khat is very reliable from floor defense, net defense, especially during attack. Too much power for her.”
Amid feeling that she committed a lot of errors, Chery Tiggo only had 15 errors in five sets as Bell credited it to their net defense, nailing 12 blocks, and their floor defense anchored by liberos Buding Duremdes and Karen Verdeflor.
“I think the biggest thing is defense. We get great block touches but I think we tend to get stuck in our defensive position, so just making sure we’re making a better read on being reactive on the ball so we can get touches even if it’s going long. Individually, my body’s kinda tired, I bombed a few balls but that’s just like lack of focus for one,” she said. “But besides, I think there’s individual things that we can do as a team just to get better. The blocking was a lot better tonight than it was versus Creamline but again, that’s something that we can still get better at.”
READ: PVL: Khat Bell powers Chery Tiggo past Nxled
But more than her PVL career-high, Bell was just relieved to get the win after losing to Creamline in four sets a few days ago, where she scored 31.
“39 points is cool and the win is even better but we’re all looking forward to getting back in practice and just keep getting better. We just have a lot of things that we need to talk about and clean up a little bit and I think the further along we get, the better we’ll be. We don’t need to peak right now, there’s still a lot of games left so I’m looking forward to us making our way,” Bell said.
Bell and the Crossovers eye their fourth win in five games to cap the first round against Galeries Tower Highrisers on Thursday next week.