The Air21 Express played seamless basketball from start to finish to deal the Petron Blaze Boosters a head-scratching 97-76 loss last night in the 38th PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The unexpected blowout snapped Air21’s four-game losing slide, tallying just its second victory in seven games.
The talent-laden but undermanned Boosters crashed to their fourth defeat in seven outings and saw their two-game win streak come to an end.
Everything seemed going all right for the Boosters following so-so performances in their previous outings, tallying back-to-back wins since Serbian Rajko Toroman was relieved from the Petron bench. Toroman’s presence in the bench created some confusion as to who was really calling the shots for the Olsen Racela-coached team.
The Express, however, pulled out one big surprise and pricked Petron’s bubble with a superb outing in the entire 48-minute skirmish.
Offense was the perennial problem for the Express but the squad played brilliantly that it had five players scoring in double figures.
Mark Isip led the upset win by firing a game-high 22 points, while former Petron stalwart Rob Reyes chipped in 17 points. Bonbon Custodio and KG Canaleta scattered 12 markers each, while Nelebrt Omolon had 11 points.
The Express jumped the gun on the Boosters and ended the first period with a 34-23 lead.
With every Air21 player contributing, the Express completely put the game away when they posted several 20-point leads in the third canto. Arwind Santos paced the Boosters with 15 markers while Chris Lutz had 13.