Win over Star a confidence-booster for Dawson, Blackwater

Blackwater Elite. PBA IMAGES

Blackwater Eric Dawson knows beating one of the traditional powers in the PBA is always a good sign of progress.

The Elite pulled off arguably the biggest upset of the PBA Governors’ Cup so far when it shocked many-time champion Star, 100-98, Friday night.

Dawson said the win is confidence-booster for the Elite, a team that has never experienced playing in the playoffs.

“It’s always good to beat a powerhouse, it says something about our team,” said Dawson. “We prepared all week for them and we executed on offense and defense.”

“It’s going to give us confidence, we can’t just go out for one win, we still have nine more games to go and I’m sure there’s a lot more competition out there so we just got to build from this win and see if we can get better as a unit.”

Dawson gave the Elite the 99-98 lead with nine seconds remaining in the game and it was just a matter of making a stop to seal the win.

JP Erram was the one who rose up for the defensive occasion, swatting away Allein Maliksi’s fade away at the five-second mark.

Dawson finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds but shot a poor 38 percent from the field. Fortunately the one-time San Antonio Spur had his teammates step up in Blackwater’s time of need.

Apart from Dawson, Blackwater had five players score in double with Erram leading the pack with 16 points.

“It’s great, they stepped up when I wasn’t on the court. But no matter, if I didn’t score, I’m still glad we got the win.”