Fortuna, Ferrer star as Blackwater vents ire on Café France

MANILA, Philippines — Blackwater wasn’t going to let Cafe France get away with another win.

And the Elite made sure of it with a dominating 81-60 victory over the Bakers Thursday in the 2012 PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

Head coach Leo Isaac and his wards — fresh off a slim loss to NLEX — vented their ire on the Bakers, who, ironically, was the first one to beat the Road Warriors in a long time.

“I showed them (the tape of) our game against NLEX, and we thought we could’ve won. So it was an eye-opener,” said Isaac, referring to the 68-70 loss last week

“And we thought, we were not going to let Cafe France do to us what they did to NLEX. Not against us,” he added, recognizing the Bakers’ 66-52 win over the league’s powerhouse.

Blackwater stepped on the pedal early, banking on Jeric Fortuna, Kevin Ferrer and Gio Ciriacruz — who did not sit out the first 12 minutes — to build the lead.

They led by 25 at halftime, and by 29 points three minutes into the payoff period — the Elite’s biggest of the game — courtesy of back to back buckets from Fortuna and Paulo Pe.

The Bakers, though, went on a dangerous 17-0 run to bring the lead down to just 12 with still three minutes to go.

But a left corner triple from Ferrer and a basket from Karim Abdul put the outcome beyond doubt for Blackwater a minute after.

Fortuna led with 13 points, three rebounds and four assists, while Ferrer and Ciriacruz added 11 and 10 with six rebounds each.

Blackwater forged a tie with Big Chill at second place with 5-2, while Cafe France dropped to 4-3, tied with Cagayan Valley.