Games today:
Araneta Coliseum
4:15 p.m.- Rain or Shine vs. Meralco
6:30 p.m.- Brgy. Ginebra vs. B-Meg
The Powerade Tigers ended a two-game slide with a 98-88 win over the Petron Blaze Boosters last night in their out-of-town battle of the 37th PBA Commissioner’s Cup in Legazpi City.
The Tigers built leads of as many as 30 points in the third quarter and held off several rallies by the Boosters to bag their third win in five games.
Powerade started the tournament with two straight wins before enduring two straight losses.
The Boosters tried to come back from that large deficit but the 30-point hole proved too much to overcome as the best they could do was to cut the deficit to eight points in the final five minutes of the contest.
Marcio Lassiter spearheaded the Boosters with 23 points and 11 rebounds as the Tigers forged a four-way tie at second place with the surging Air21 Express, Barangay Ginebra Kings and B-Meg Llamados.
The Talk ’N Text Tropang Texters lead the standings with four wins and one loss.
The Boosters saw their three-game win streak come to an end.
Instead of moving up to solo second, Petron dropped to joint sixth place with their third loss against the same number of wins. The Alaska Aces also have a 3-3 (win-loss) record.
Six-foot-11 import Nick Fazekas finished with 21 points for the Boosters while Denok Miranda and Joseph Yeo added 19 and 15, respectively.
Arwind Santos, who had 45 points in Petron’s last outing, was held to just 11 points and was hounded by foul trouble late in the game.
Meanwhile, sister-teams Barangay Ginebra Kings and B-Meg Llamados try to break free from a logjam at second place when they face each other in today’s double-header at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, on the other hand, try to improve their rankings when they collide against Meralco in the first match.
The Painters are mired at the bottom of the standings with a 1-4 record, while the Bolts are at ninth place with a 2-4 slate.
BOXSCORES:
Powerade 98 – D-avis 25, Lassiter 23, Jones 22, Anthony 8, Casio 8, Kramer 8, Cruz 2, Vanlandingham 2, Adducul 0, Calimag 0.
Petron 88 – Fazekas 21, Miranda 19, Yeo 15, Cabagnot 13, Santos 11, Tugade 7, Agustin 2, Reyes 0, Duruelo 0.
QUARTERSCORES: 41-23, 66-39, 81-68, 98-88.