WITH a towel wrapped on his shoulders, NorthPort star Arvin Tolentino watched from the bench as seconds ticked away and his teammates continued to get the job done against an out-of-sync Converge five last night.
Powered by Tolentino’s new career high of 51 points, the Batang Pier dumped the FiberXers 135-109 for their second straight win in Group A of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
There was nothing the porous Converge defense could do against the charges of coach Bonnie Tan–especially on Tolentino who boomed in a jumper off FiberXers reserve Kamron Vigan-Fleming that pushed his total to 51 and an unassailable 125-104 bulge, only 2:01 to play.
Red-hot Rain or Shine stakes its 3-0 card when it battles winless Phoenix today while Ginebra clashes with struggling Blackwater, both in Group B, at the same venue.
“Speechless. I was hot sa start pa lang ng game and we led early on and then I felt na maganda iyong itinatakbo ng team especially sa transition and on defense. Siguro suwerte lang na dumating sa akin iyong bola and nai-shoo-shoot ko naman,” Tolentino said. “Like I said, this is not a one-man team like a lot of people are saying. We play as a team. We have fun, kaming magkakakampi. I think that’s one big factor why maganda ang inilalaro namin.”
For Tan, his team’s decision to bring back import Venky Jois in lieu of Taylor Johns is fast turning out to be worth it.
“Iyong energy niya (Jois) I think is No. 1. Second is iyong relationship niya with his teammates. Iyon ang big factor kay Venky Jois,” Tan said of Jois, who had six points and 10 rebounds.
The 6-foot-5 Tolentino added seven rebounds and three assists while Joshua Munzon added 19 markers and two boards.
Jio Jalalon had 13 points, two caroms, and five dimes while Damie Cuntapay and William Navarro combined for 21 as the Batang Pier did an encore to a 112-93 rout of the Terrafirma Dyip Friday last week and jacked up their record to 2-1.
The FiberXers seemed to have run out of gas two nights after they stunned the TNT Tropang Giga 96-95 and dropped to 2-2.
A former Far Eastern University star, Tolentino became the first local to reach the 50-point mark since Stanley Pringle, then playing for the NorthPort franchise, uncorked 50 on June 22, 2018, in GlobalPort’s 133-115 over Columbian.
The Batang Pier surged ahead 68-50 at the intermission before a Cuntapay layup stretched the difference to as much as 96-67 with 2:21 remaining in the third canto.
NorthPort went into the fourth period comfortably leading 100-87.
Reinforcement Scotty Hopson totaled 24 points, 10 boards and seven feeds for Converge while Alec Stockton had 19 and six.
Justin Arana, who went down with a right ankle sprain early in the fourth, added 16 markers and nine boards for the FiberXers, who also drew 16 and 12 from Bryan Santos and Kevin Racal.
