Bay Area Dragons’ import Import Andrew Nicholson. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines–Guest team Bay Area flirted at setting the biggest winning margin in history before completing its destruction of Terrafirma, 130-76, on Friday in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
Import Andrew Nicholson continued the trend of putting up big numbers in the first half on his way to 37 points as the Dragons improved to a 6-1 record at the expense of the team that extended its miserable skid to 22 consecutive games.
“We wanted to finish this thing on a bright note because we saw this as a danger game,” said coach Brian Goorjian, whose team will now use most of the two-week break for rest and relaxation.
Bay Area, as expected, came out dominating Terrafirma with Nicholson making 31 in the first two quarters before falling short in shattering the all-time mark of 55 set 42 years ago.
U-Tex still holds the distinction for pulling off the feat back in July 12, 1980 when it beat Great Taste, 154-99, during that year’s Open Conference which the Wranglers eventually won.
Terrafirma dropped to 0-6 as the latest setback moved the hapless squad seven losses shy of tying Blackwater’s miserable mark of 29 straight games without a victory.
Juami Tiongson’s 21 points in his return from injury was not enough as the Dyip saw import Lester Prosper scoring just 18.
The scores:
BAY AREA 130 – Nicholson 37, Zheng 17, Song 15, Zhu 12, Blankley 9, Lam 9, Yang 8, Si 7, Liu 5, Liang 4, Zhang 3, Reid 2, Ju 2.
TERRAFIRMA 76 – Tiongson 21, Prosper 18, Munzon 9, Cahilig 8, Camson 5, Gomez de Liano 4, Alolino 4, Mina 3, Calvo 2, Gabayni 2, Javelona 0, Ramos 0, Grospe 0, Balagasay 0.
Quarters: 35-18, 67-37, 101-62, 130-76.