NorthPort had its first winning run of the conference after beating Meralco, 99-94, in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup Friday at Mall of Asia Arena.
The Batang Pier, who started the conference at 0-6, tacked their second straight win while the Bolts fell to their sixth straight loss for a 1-6 slate.
Sean Anthony and Stanley Pringle came up big in the clutch for the Batang Pier after the pair exchanged a couple of huge threes that put NorthPort up 98-91 with 24 seconds left in the game.
This came after the Bolts got back from 10 points down, 84-74, to just two, 90-88, after a 14-6 run with 2:05 remaining in the game.
“Stanley and Sean are the heart and soul of this team, they were out for the first three games of the conference so when they got back they first had to adjust to the team’s chemistry,” said NorthPort head coach Pido Jarencio in Filipino.
Pringle was serving his international duty with the national team in the Asian Games at the start of the conference while Anthony was injured before the start of the tournament.
Apart from the clutch heroics of Pringle and Anthony, import Rashad Woods recovered from his first half slump and scored all of his 20 points in the second half.
Anthony led NorthPort’s offense with 26 points, on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point distance, with three steals while Pringle had 24 points, on 6-of-12 shooting from deep, with eight rebounds.
Durham carried the Bolts with 37 points and 19 rebounds while Mike Tolomia added 18 points.
The Bolts’ 1-6 record is their worst start in any conference and their six straight losses matched a franchise record.