A long, excruciating wait for a victory finally came to a close as Macau took down Titan Ultra, 119-107, to break through into the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup win column at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Tuesday.
Desperate to succeed after losing their first seven games, the Black Knights put together one consistent showing all the way to the end, in the process injecting some hope to their aspirations of advancing to the quarterfinals.
Coach Marcus Elliott’s men erupted for 41 points in the second chapter for a 65-48 lead at the half, and then put together a strong finish behind Jenning Leung, Phoenix Shackelford, and Damian Chongqui to silence their foes for good.
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“I felt like we should be a couple of wins in, but it feels good,” said the rookie bench tactician, who led a team that only had a total of nine players in attendance as the others had to attend to personal and business matters back home.
Leung finished with a PBA career-high 32 points, 10 of which he produced in the deciding period alone to lead the closeout after the Giant Risers cut what was once a 22-point spread to just nine twice early in the said quarter.
He knocked down his first and lone four-pointer of the game to push their lead back to a decade with less than eight minutes remaining, and then hit a triple moments later to make it a 112-97 advantage with exactly 7:00 on the clock.
Then came Chongqui, who scored five straight to make it an 18-point gap, 117-99, with 4:57 to spare, eventually wearing out the opposition.
“It’s just pride,” said Leung, who went 7-of-10 from three and finished with an 11-of-15 clip from the floor overall. “We were knocking on the door for a couple of wins. And we have a lot of pride that we don’t want to keep losing.
“Every game’s a chance to get a win, so we came together and got the win,” added the 29-year-old guard, who grew up in Los Banos, Laguna.
Chongqui finished with 23 points and nine assists. Shackelford and import Tony Mitchell registered identical numbers of 18 points and 14 rebounds, while Li Jiashou and Ramon Cao chipped in 11 and 10 markers, respectively.
Macau improved to 1-7 and will look to win its four remaining games in the elimination round to earn a slim chance to reach the playoffs’ first round, beginning with Bol Bol and TNT this Friday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Let my guys get some rest, patch up their bodies, refresh their minds, take it day by day,” said Elliott about their approach in the crucial matches ahead.
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Fran Yu, on the other hand, saw his career-high effort of 35 points–alongside five rebounds and five assists–go for naught after Titan Ultra fell to its third straight loss and dropped to 2-6, staying at no. 10 in the standings.
Jerrick Balanza backed him up with 20 points as the team had different leaders in scoring this time after usual suspects Joshua Munzon and import Michael Gilmore combined for just 23 points on a combined 8-of-28 shooting.
The Scores:
Macau 119 – Leung 32, Chongqui 23, Shackelford 18, Mitchell 18, Li 11, Cao 10, Chen 7, Lu 0.
Titan Ultra 107 – Yu 35, Balanza 20, Munzon 12, Gilmore 11, Flores 8, Dionisio 6, Pessumal 4, Javillonar 4, Caralipio 3, Sajonia 2, Melecio 2, Omega 0, Ular 0.
Quarterscores: 24-32, 65-48, 92-77, 119-107.
