THROWING A WRENCH
With the conference all but lost and a roster reshaped by key departures, NorthPort on Wednesday stunned playoff-bound NLEX, 113-108, flattening the wheels of the Road Warriors in what was supposed to be their journey to the top spot.
Behind Cade Flores’ career night, the Batang Pier captured their second win of the tournament—one to go with the triumph against a lowly Terrafirma side—at a time they are trying to rebuild following the exit of cornerstone Arvin Tolentino and rising star William Navarro.
“We saw in the players the willingness to win, and that’s also what Coach Bonnie (Tan) keeps reminding all of us—that even though these are the only players we have, we still have to fight to win, and not let whatever happened to us this conference break us down,” NorthPort deputy Rensy Bajar said in Filipino on the heels of the upset of erstwhile top-seeded NLEX.
Flores typified that defiance at Ninoy Aquino Stadium, putting up a career-best 26 points to go with 15 rebounds. But he was quick to credit such a commendable production to a collective effort—something that should truly be welcome for this club in transition.
“It could be anybody’s night on this team,” he said, his 13 points in the third had NorthPort outscoring its opponent, 40-22.
“I guess today’s just my day. So I just took every opportunity I got and I thank the team for all the assists obviously. We had 30 assists as a team. That’s fantastic.”
Fortuitous
Fran Yu, Calvin Abueva, and Joshua Munzon were just as instrumental in that second-half fightback that hiked the shipping club’s record to 2-8 while dealing NLEX its third loss in the elimination round.
The Road Warriors drew 21 points from Robbie Herndon, while 16 each from both Brandon Ramirez and Robert Bolick, Jr. Four more finished with twin-digit scores, but that hardly helped in the loss that cost them a chance at locking up the No. 1 seed.
If anything, the loss could be fortuitous as sliding a shade lower would keep the Road Warriors away from a collision course with corporate sibling Meralco, which will likely enter the knockout stage as the No. 8 seed.
The top-seeded squad in the last Commissioner’s Cup, NorthPort will just have to settle for wins that, at this point, hurt the opposing team more than they help the Batang Pier.
NorthPort, however, which closes its tournament with a duel against perennial Philippine Cup title contender San Miguel, is looking to have fun with that idea.
“If we could just double the effort we showed tonight against NLEX,” Bajar said when asked about playing the spoiler’s role against the Beermen, who are shooting for the twice-to-beat bonus against Converge as of press time.
“We really want to end the conference on a high note and carry that win into our next games in the coming conference.”
