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Friday, March 29, 2024

Hotshots notch 1st win, send Elite back to earth

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IT’S about time.

Star finally broke its dry spell as it vented its ire on Blackwater, sending the sophomore franchise back to earth with a resounding 122-103 rout to finally list a win in the 2016 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday night.

Denzel Bowles was his usual productive self, tallying team-highs 28 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while James Yap set the tone early for Star on his way to scoring 15 points and four rebounds.

With an improved 1-3 slate, Star, though still at the bottom of the pack, is back in the thick of things, but it would still need to rack up more wins to improve its standing. 

Star’s Justin Melton is trapped by a double-team put up by Blackwater’s Mike Cortez and Carlo Lastimosa in a PBA Commissioner’s Cup game won by the Hotshots, 122-103.

On the other hand, the Elite saw their two-game winning streak snapped as they fell to an even 2-2 card.

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Aware that they need to step it up as it was a must-win situation, the Hotshots turned in their finest performance so far to finally break into the win column and avoid a deeper hole.

“I thought our defense held up and it was really good, that’s why we got that good lead in the first half,” said Star coach Jason Webb.

“We’re just happy that we finally got our first win,” added Bowles

Playing with a lot of urgency, Star came out with guns blazing, starting the first five minutes of the game with a 17-4 spurt after Yap scored eight quick points in that stretch to lead the team.

It was in the second period, where the Hotshots broke the game wide open when they continued their juggernaut and built an even more sizeable 19-point lead, 53-34, with just over three minutes left before halftime after a Jake Pascual jumper. At the half, Star’s lead stood at 17 points, 58-41.

The veteran squad never looked back from there.

The win-hungry Star pounced harder in the second half and kept its safe distance until it formalized the victory.

Showing no mercy at all, the Hotshots increased their lead up to 28 points, 109-81, after a monster slam from Bowles with less than seven minutes to go in the game.

Blackwater was never in the game at all.

Its improved play in its last two games was nowhere to be found as Star completely blew them out of the building from start to finish.

The only positive that the Elite got from the loss was the unleashing of import MJ Rhett, who finally had a breakout game with monster game-highs of 30 points and 21 rebounds in a losing effort.

Games Friday 

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

4:15 p.m. • Mahindra vs. NLEX

7 p.m. • San Miguel vs. GlobalPort

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