Phoenix Fuel Masters star Jason Perkins against the NorthPort Batang Pier. Photo from PBA Images.MANILA — The Phoenix Fuel Masters finally ended its winless start in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup.
The Jamike Jarin-coached squad tallied its first win after they moved past the NorthPort Batang Pier, 115-109, on Tuesday evening at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila for their breakthrough win in the conference.
“I just like to commend all players. They deserve this, so we just have to give credit to our veterans, especially RJ Jazul,” said Jarin after the game. “This is big, we were 0-4, so we really needed to climb up,” he added.
RJ Jazul was hailed as the Best Player of the Game with 14 points and five assists, while Donovan Smith fired a game-high 32 points with 14 rebounds, four dimes, four steals, and two blocks.
”Hindi naman sa amin scoring yung priority,” said Jazul. “We just needed leadership and composure kasi nung mga nakaraan, third and fourth quarter kami nawawala. Ngayon, we finally learned our lesson.”
Jason Perkins was also admirable, posting 24 markers, four boards, three steals, and two assists, and following him was Ken Tuffin who tallied 15 points, and this helped them to improve to 1-4.
After falling short of holding on to its 55-45 lead at halftime, with the Batang Pier even led briefly in the third, 72-71, the Fuel Masters regained their momentum by ending the quarter with a 13-to-4 surge that was started by a Smith three-pointer at the 2:51 mark and was capped off by his deuce with only 12 seconds left in the same frame.
This allowed Phoenix to increase their lead to 13, 93-80, later on in the fourth period, but NorthPort showed signs of life and later on brought their deficit to as low as five, 114-109, after a breakaway lay-in by Evan Nelle with under 30 ticks remaining in the game.
Unfortunately for Bonnie Tan’s troops, that was the nearest that they could come as Nelle and Joshua Munzon fired blanks in their three and four-point attempts to further cut Phoenix’s lead.
Batang Pier import Kareem Jack finished with 28 points and 16 rebounds, while backstopping him was Arvin Tolentino who scored 23 and grabbed six boards.
NorthPort still sits at the top of the team standings with a 5-1 record
The Scores:
Phoenix 115 – Smith 32, Perkins 24, Tuffin 15, Jazul 14, Manganti 9, Soyud 7, Tio 5, Salado 4, Rivero 3, Verano 2, Daves 0, Ular 0, Alejandro 0, Garcia 0.
NorthPort 109 – Jack 28, Tolentino 23, Munzon 18, Nelle 15, Onwubere 11, Bulanadi 7, Navarro 3, Flores 2, Miranda 2, Yu 0, Cuntapay 0.
Quarterscores: 29-21, 54-45, 84-76, 115-109