Shell checks losing skid

Shell came out of its shell and left Alaska shell-shocked as the Turbo Chargers arrested a long skid by trouncing the Acers, 91-77, in the PBA Governors Cup at the Philsports Arena last night.

The Turbo Chargers were depleted further with Jay Mendoza suspended for 15 days by the team management for misconduct but the team worked extra hard as it snapped a losing skein dating back to the second conference.

The Turbo Chargers also halted a long losing streak in their head-on matches with the Acers, thus forcing a tie between the two teams in the third conference chart with similar 1-2 win-loss records.

"We did a good job defensively and it fueled our offense. It also helped that we caught Alaska on its off night," said Shell coach Perry Ronquillo. "But I’m not taking anything away from my players, specially my relievers who responded very well given more playing time in the absence of some or our key players."

Ronquillo also said they didn’t do anything special except to show what he called "our usual fighting spirit." "We’d been losing a lot lately but no one can accuse us of not giving our best all the time. That’s been our attitude and I like my team to keep though playing short-handed," said Ronquillo.

Ronquillo was left with only 10 players to rotate with Benjie Paras still recovering from a recent foot surgery and Mendoza suspended by the team management for 15 days without pay reportedly for punching a ballboy of the team in practice. The 6-foot-4 power forward will miss three more games.

Minus Paras and Mendoza, Mark Telan, Jun Marzan, Dale Singson and import John Morton took cudgels for the team with each one finishing in double figures.

Telan humbled the defenses of Poch Juinio and Don Allado, coming away with 23 points that went with 11 rebounds, five blocks and three assists against only one turnover. Morton added 22 points, three rebounds and the same number of assists and blocks, Marzan fired four triples and wound up with 17 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals while Singson chipped in 14 points, four rebounds and four assists.

The whole Shell team put up an efficient defense that netted nine steals and forced the Acers to a total of 24 turnovers.

The Turbo Chargers went to notch only their second victory in their last nine games and only their first in their last seven head-on collisions with the Acers.