MACAU—Blackwater bowed out of the East Asia Super League: The Terrific 12 after a brutal loss to Chiba, 109-69, in its last group stage game Wednesday at Tap Seac Sports Pavilion here.
The Elite dropped to a 0-2 record and won’t be advancing to the semifinals with the winner between the Jets and Seoul representing Group A in the penultimate round.
Failing to establish an offensive rhythm from the start, Blackwater allowed the Jets to take an early 22-10 lead and failed to recover.
The Jets broke the game open after ending the first half on a 21-6 run finished by Yuki Togashi’s floater with 15 seconds to give Chiba the 64-25 lead.
Elite head coach Aris Dimaunahan said the losses to Chiba and the SK Knights will serve as a lesson for them heading into the PBA Governors’ Cup, which opens Friday.
The two games allowed the other players to log heavy minutes with stars Bobby Ray Parks and Mike Digregorio sidelined with injuries.
“Just like yesterday we started the game very flat and we paid dearly for it,” said Dimaunahan. “It goes to show that we still have a lot of work going back to our battle in the Philippines.”
Paul Desiderio and Gelo Alolino were put in place of Parks and Digregorio.
“We look at it as we never lost but this is all learning for us so when we come back home we’ll do better in the third conference.”
Marqus Blakely led the Elite with 16 points and 12 rebounds while Alexander Stepheson had his own double-double of 12 points and 11 boards.
Michael Parker had 22 points and 13 rebounds for Chiba while Josh Duncan added 20 points and nine boards.