Welcoat climbs on top; Dazz stuns Montana

Welcoat unleashed a crippling 10-0 attack in the final six minutes to turn back ICTSI, 78-66, yesterday in the 2002 PBL Challenge Cup at the Pasig Sports Center.

The victory proved to be a big rebound for the Paint Masters after suffering a painful 84-87 loss to Montana in Tarlac last Saturday.

Jean Marc Pingress, who finished with 14 points and six blocks, joined veterans Romel Adducul and Eddie Laure in the pivotal spurt to ensure the Paint Masters’ fourth win in five games.

"Yung talo namin sa Montana, naging wake-up call yun para sa amin that we must still work harder. Naging overconfident lang kami noon. The players realized na kailangang magtrabaho para lumabas yung advantage namin kasi every other team prepares really hard to beat us," said Welcoat coach Leo Austria.

The Paint Masters ended up sharing the lead with Blu and LBC-Batangas after Dazz Dishwashing Liquid pulled off a stunning 80-73 win over Montana in the second game.

The Greasebusters climbed to 2-3 while the Jewelers, instead of taking the solo lead, fell to solo second at 4-2.

ICTSI managed to draw even with Welcoat with 44 rebounds but their 21 turnovers were glaring enough that Welcoat managed to translate it into 18 points.

The ICTSI Archers were close to getting back on track after Mark Cardona and Bruce Dacia trimmed the gap to just five, 62-67, 6:16 remaining in the final quarter.

But they fell into a series of lapses as Austria’s reliable stalwarts took matters into their own hands and pulled the Paint Masters up anew at 77-62, 1:52 left.

Welcoat put on the pressure on their defense that ICTSI only scored on Bernzon Franco’s back-to-back baskets, 66-77, with 17.1 to go before Paul Artadi’s split of his charities sealed the final tally.

Adducul topscored for Welcoat with 15 points and eight rebounds while Laure added 14 points and nine rebounds.

Only Cardona scored in double digits for ICTSI with 16 points.