Al Thornton, NLEX bounce back to rip Blackwater

NLEX’s Al Thorton soars high as Blackwater’s Marcus Douthit tries to stop the shot. PBA Images/Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines — NLEX made Blackwater’s breakthrough win look like a fluke with a thorough 106-79 beating on Tuesday for its first victory in the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Import Al Thornton redeemed himself from a bad game and equaled his personal conference-high 39 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the field. He already fired 24 points by halftime and 36 after three quarters.

The former NBA veteran had just 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting in an 87-62 loss to defending champion Purefoods last Wednesday.

“It’s really nice to get our first win this conference,” said NLEX head coach Boyet Fernandez. “We hope that this will be a good start for us looking forward. We’ll be facing the top teams before the All-Star break.”

“I’m happy with the way he played,” Fernandez said of Thornton, who played without the metal brace on his left knee for the first time in over a year.

Thornton admitted during the setback to the Hotshots that the extra padding required by the league for his left knee to protect the metal brace, which has caused injuries to Alaska’s Vic Manuel and Calvin Abueva, affected his performance mentally.

According to Fernandez, instead of having to get used to yhe extra thick cushioning wrapped around his surgically repaired knee, Thornton decided to let go of the brace during practice and have it replaced with the normal knee pad. And with a big game, he certainly didn’t seem to have any problems with it.

The Road Warriors sent the Elite back to the whipping team they were before surprising San Miguel last Wednesday for their first-ever franchise victory.

Blackwater scored the first two points of the game but it was all NLEX, which led by as much as 35, 84-49, the rest of the way.

The Road Warriors had seven other players scoring at least seven points with Niño Canaleta, Rudy Lingganay, Jonas Villanueva and Enrico Villanueva posting nine each and Asi Taulava adding eight long with eight rebounds.

Brian Faundo paced Blackwater, which got dominated in the rebounding department, 61-36, with 17 points. Marcus Douthit contributed 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Elite, who looked far from the team who stunned the Beermen with a three-point victory.
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