MANILA, Philippines - RR Garcia and Cliff Hodge combined in the clutch as NLEX hacked out a come-from-behind 75-73 victory over Blackwater in the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup at the Trinity University of Asia gym yesterday.
Garcia and Hodge scored all but two of their team’s last 24 points as the Road Warriors wiped out a 51-61 deficit in the last 5:47 to nail their third victory in four games. Garcia buried three triples in four-of-six shooting while Hodge went five-of-five, including a trey.
“The players deserved the win. They didn’t give up even when things didn’t look good,” said NLEX coach Boyet Fernandez.
The loss was Blackwater’s third straight after sweeping its first three games.
The Elite battled back from a 13-point deficit, 34-47, in the third period, led by 10 on a basket by Chris Camus with 6:16 to play but faltered on both ends the rest of the way.
Ronald Pascual, Calvin Abueva, Ian Sanggalang (San Sebastian) and Dave Marcelo played for three quarters but hurriedly left at the start of the fourth quarter to play for their respective school teams in the Philippine Collegiate Championship League.
Hodge and Garcia, however, got the job done with the former firing 23 points and hauling down nine rebounds and the latter finishing with 18 points, five assists and one steal.
In the second game, Stephen Siruma made two free throws with 4.9 seconds left as Boracay Rum booked its third straight win via a 72-68 decision over DUB Unlimited.
Maclean Sabelina scored 16 points and Glenn Khobuntin added 12 for the Waves, who improved to 4-2 to stay in the race for an outright semifinal berth.
Marlon Gomez scored 12 points and had 11 rebounds for DUB Unlimited which fell to 1-5.