BAY Area sealed its place in the quarterfinals with another blowout victory, this time against NLEX, 118-98, on Sunday in the 2022-23 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Myles Powell scored 36 points, lower than his 50-point performance during Friday’s game against Rain or Shine. The Bay Area import though remained effective as the Dragons improved to 8-2 (win-loss).
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Their place in the playoffs assured, Bay Area has two more games left in the eliminations to clinch twice-to-beat advantage in the next round.
Powell served up the highlight of the game, completing an alley-oop dunk off a pass by Hayden Blankley at the 5:46 mark of the fourth quarter for a 108-85 lead.
Glen Yang added 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals, while Kobe Lam chipped in 12 points as the locals completed the job for the foreign guest team.
“I felt comfortable that we were going to get into these playoffs with our tremendous start,” said Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian. “Now, the focus is really good and the last two games we are going to play are huge because learning about this competition, the one advantage is if you finish first or second, you got that double try in the first round of the playoffs and we have an opportunity to do that.”
Powell already had 24 points at the half, and Bay Area eventually led, 71-45, in the third, the biggest of the contest.
The struggles continue for NLEX, which fell to its fourth straight game to fall down to 3-6 win-loss under new head coach Frankie Lim.
Earl Clark had 17 points, and Don Trollano, back after missing the previous game due to health and safety protocols, had 15 points for the Road Warriors.
The scores:
Bay Area 118 – Powell 36, Yang 15, Blankley 13, Lam 12, Ju 11, Liu 11, Zhu 9, Song 6, Reid 4, Zheng 1, Ewing 0, Si 0, Liang 0.
NLEX 98 – Clark 17, Chua 15, Trollano 15, Rosales 12, Ganuelas-Rosser 12, Alas 10, Paniamogan 6, Celda 5, Varilla 4, Miranda 2, Fonacier 0, Ighalo 0.
Quarters: 26-21; 64-45; 91-71; 118-98.
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