CHICAGO — While distraction is often an impediment to shared goals, it can also be repurposed into fuel for motivation.
Which was what Blackwater did to open their PBA Season 50 PBA Governors’ Cup campaign.
READ Winning keeps Barefield happy at Blackwater amid trade talks
Blocking all the searing trade noise that had dominated their offseason, the Bossing played with relentless energy that suffocated Rain Shine on Saturday night, 131-108.
Former Gilas women’s national team coach Pat Aquino, the most successful to ever hold the position, made a Sunday confession.
KEEPING THE CORE.
He worried about losing key pieces because he knew that, if kept intact, “the team wants to prove more and show they can compete in the league.”
At least for now, all that anxiety is behind him now.
“Very satisfying and proud of the team going out strong and maintaining the intensity,” Blackwater coach Pat Aquino told me via text message.
Plucked from the Indonesian league, Kentrell Barkley showed why he was IBL MVP with a 29-point, 15-rebound triple-double that was capped by 10 assists.
Sedrick Barefield proved impressive despite the trade chatter around him and rattled in 24 markers, while RK Ilagan had a robust 22 points, five rebounds and three dimes.
A GOOD FIRST STEP.
Enthused at what a healthy Ilagan can do for Blackwater, Aquino is hopeful that the team “don’t stop learning and getting better.”
The Barkley-Barefield-Ilagan trifecta held off a 38-point outburst from Rain or Shine import Aaron Fuller.
The victory didn’t just allow the Bossing a 1-0 start, it also avenged the 56-point shellacking at the hnads of the Elasto Painters in a Commissioner’s Cup encounter last March.
For a change, the league’s perennial doormat and patsy did the bullying against a legit contender.
It’s a reversal of fortune PBA fans have long wanted to see.
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