Mangahas, Bagatsing team up as Blackwater keeps NU winless

Allan Mangahas of Blackwater (dark) vs Paolo Javelona, Dennice Villamor and Jethroy Rosario of NU-BDO (light). PBA D-LEAGUE IMAGE by Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines – Former PBA reserve Allan Mangahas and Hyram Bagatsing conspired in a telling fourth quarter push as Blackwater Sports rallied past National University-BDO 71-69 in the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup Tuesday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

Mangahas controlled the tempo and Bagatsing gave his team a much-needed scoring lift off-the-bench as the Elite rose from 12 points down to improve their record to 3-1 while also sending the Bulldogs to a 0-4 start.

“We had to dig deep, we needed to,” said Blackwater coach Leo Isaac. “You just can’t take any team here for granted.”

And digging deep also meant finding production outside Isaac’s normal rotation.

With Jericho Cruz and Kevin Ferrer not in their usual selves at the offensive end, Blackwater rode on some of its bench contributors and Bagatsing as well as backup guard Jed Manguera answered the call.

Bagatsing finished with a team-high 15 points, including a three-point play off a setup by Mangahas that finally gave Blackwater the lead 58-57 with 8:32 left.

Manguera, who added 10 points on a perfect four-of-four shooting, buried a long two five minutes later that made it 69-61 before Parks willed NU back to within one, 69-70, on a contested drive with 19.8 ticks left.

Parks, who finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, couldn’t carry the Bulldogs all the way as he missed a closely guarded last-second turnaround triple from the left corner.

“A college team giving a D-League team a run for its money just proves that we can’t rest and we have to continue on practicing, perfecting our offensive sets and put up better defensive stops,” said Isaac.

Mangahas, who had a brief stint with the Meralco Bolts, had 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals and at one stretch accounted for Blackwater’s 11 straight points bridging the third and fourth period.

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