Elite keep top spot

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

ANTIPOLO—For most of the game Saturday night, it seemed like Blackwater had gotten a little too comfortable with its lofty position, toying around with NLEX—the Elite would zoom to double-digit leads and then allow the Road Warriors to fight back.

And then, with about eight and a half minutes to play in the game, Blackwater went from pawing to pounding.

The result? A 132-106 rout that gave the Elite their fifth win in six starts in a PBA Commissioner’s Cup Petron Saturday Special that had coach Aris Dimaunahan eschewing his usual post-game talk openers on statistics.

“We aimed to take care of business tonight [because] we didn’t want to stay on cloud nine after those four wins that we’ve had,” Dimaunahan said at Ynares Sports Center.

The Elite took several big leads but kept allowing the Road Warriors back, the last when a Tony Mitchell basket made it 102-94, 8:34 left in the game.

The Elite finally had enough, unloading a 22-4 run that buried NLEX, 124-98, under three minutes remaining.

When Dimaunahan finally spoke about game numbers, he pointed to the Elite’s effort to share the ball: “[W]e got 29 assists today and that is a testament to our efforts to look for the open man.”

Parks logged a career-best 29 points to help Blackwater gather momentum going into a mammoth match against San Miguel Beer on Friday.

The Beermen continued their reeling start to the conference, absorbing a second straight loss after getting whipped by TNT, 110-97.

Terrence Jones had 30 points to lead the KaTropa, who led early and were never seriously threatened the rest of the way.