MANILA - Converge FiberXers stayed undefeated in the PBA Governors' Cup after taking down the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters, 112-98, at the PhilSports Arena on Thursday night. The FiberXers used a third-quarter breakaway where they outscored the Elasto Painters, 32-21, to pull away for good before holding them off in the fourth. Jamaal Franklin put up a triple-double of 25 points, 13 rebounds, and 15 assists for Converge, which is once again the sole top team in the conference with a 4-0 card. Michael Qualls put up 34 points for ROS, which remained winless at 0-3 even as the team saw head coach Yeng Guiao getting sent off for incurring two technical fouls, both for using profane language. (PNA) }
MANILA-Converge moved to the top of the PBA Governors' Cup standings after escaping with a 111-109 win against Magnolia at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City on Sunday night. Clutch moments from Jamaal Franklin turned out to be the cushion the FiberXers needed to frustrateseveral Hotshots' attemptsto steal the match. With Converge up, 106-104, Franklin trapped Rome Dela Rosa into fouling him while taking a three-pointer. The import went 2-for-3 to raise the lead to four with 2:03 left. Paul Lee missed out on bringing the gap back to two as he split from his own trip to the charity stripe before Franklin sank a high-arching triple with 1:04 remaining for a 111-105 Converge cushion. Eric McCree, however, made four straight points to cut the lead to two with 30.9 seconds left even as the Magnolia defense forced Franklin to a crucial turnover, giving the Hotshots 10.4 seconds to at least force overtime. McCree, however, missed on a desperate three-point attempt as time expired. Fra
MANILA - TNT crawled back from 18 points down and beat Rain Or Shine, 105-100, in their PBA Governors' Cup game at the Ynares Center in Antipolo on Friday night. The Tropang Giga blasted off in the second half, dropping 44 points on the Elasto Painters, more than their entire first-half output, in the third quarter before holding them to just 16 points in the fourth quarter to steal the win. Jalen Hudson and Mikey Williams each scored 24 points even as they too had double-doubles with 14 and 10 rebounds, respectively, for TNT, which joined Converge and Meralco at the top of the team standings at 2-0. Williams came close to a triple-double as he also dished out seven assists, while RR Pogoy added 22 points, three rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block. Michael Qualls sizzled for 35 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, two steals, and two blocks but his performance was flushed as ROS dropped to 0-2. In the first game, Blackwater averted a Phoenix comeback in the end for a 108-1
MANILA - TNT crawled back from 18 points down to beat Rain Or Shine, 105-100, in the PBA Governors' Cup at Ynares Center in Antipolo on Friday night. The Tropang Giga dropped 44 points in the third quarter, or more than their entire first-half output of 36, before holding the Elasto Painters to just 16 points in the fourth quarter. Jalen Hudson and Mikey Williams each scored 24 points to go with 14 and 10 rebounds, respectively, for TNT, which joined Converge and Meralco on top at 2-0. Williams came close to a triple-double as he also dished out seven assists, while RR Pogoy added 22 points, three rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block. Michael Qualls sizzled for 35 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, two steals, and two blocks but his performance went down the drain as ROS dropped to 0-2. In the first game, Blackwater averted a Phoenix end-game comeback for a 108-105 win. The Bossing were in control for most of the first three quarters but had to turn it up a notch late in
(PNA file image) MANILA - Meralco dominated the second half to defeat Rain Or Shine, 105-87, at the start of the PBA Governors' Cup on Sunday night at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City. The Bolts held the Elasto Painters to only 33 points in the final 24 minutes of action to pull away for good. KJ McDaniels led Meralco with 27 points, 23 rebounds, three assists and one block, while Chris Banchero added 17 points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal. Chris Newsome finished with 10 points, five rebounds, six assists and one steal in his first game after four months in injury bay, but he got the last laugh over James Yap in the battle of comeback players. Rey Nambatac paced ROS with 21 points, two rebounds and one assist. Michael Qualls, who exploded for 53 points in their pre-conference clash last week, was held to just 14 markers, although he too had 15 rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block. Yap also tallied 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting in 14 minutes of play in his