ANTIPOLO - Juami Tiongson bounced back from a scoreless stint and exploded for 30 big points in Terrafirma’s 146-127 blowout win over guest team Macau that kept the Dyip back in the running for a playoffs berth in the PBA Governors Cup.
The veteran guard had 22 out of his total output in the opening half in leading his side to an early 77-66 lead in a high-scoring first two quarters at the Ynares Center here.
Tiongson finished by going 11-of-20 from the field including 7-of-10 from three-point range, while dishing off seven assists as he more than made up for his scoreless output in Terrafirma’s 116-92 loss to defending champion TNT on Wednesday.
The 19-point winning margin also improved the Dyip’s win-loss record at 4-6 and still in contention of making it to the quarterfinals.
"Yong kapalaran namin nasa mga kamay pa rin namin. As long as may mga games pa, we just need to be competing long," said Terrafirma coach Ronald Tubid.
Coming off the biggest losing margin in PBA history at 60 points, Macau again played behind a nine-man roster, but couldn’t overcome the manpower glitch and suffered their eighth loss in 10 outings to formally bow out of the playoff race.
The runaway win registered a number of franchise records for Terrafirma, according to PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III.
The Dyip’s 146-point total was the most in franchise history, its 42 points in the first period was its most in a quarter, the 77 at the break was the largest score it had at halftime, and the 115 was the biggest it scored thru three quarters.
Rookie JM Bravo erupted for a career-high 22 points, while import Justin Strings had a double-double of 32 points and 11 rebounds, as he and Tiongson became the first Terrafirma teammates to score 30 points each since CJ Perez and Lester Prosper did the feat in the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup.
Top rookie pick Geo Chiu also had a fine showing on both ends of the floor with 18 points and 20 rebounds.
Maverick Ahanmisi finished with only six points, but established a career-high 14 assists and equaled his career-high in rebounding with 12.
Macau’s loss put to naught the 41 points and 26 rebounds put up by import Oscar Lopez and the 37 points of Kobey Lam.
The scores
Terrafirma 146 -- Strings 32, Tiongson 30, Bravo 22, Chiu 18, Paraiso 11, Eriobu 11, Miller 6, Ahanmisi 6, Mariano 4, Catapusan 4, Hanapi 2, Umali 0, Garcia 0, Zaldivar 0, Adamos 0.
Macau 127 -- Lopez 41, Lam 37, Lao 20 Chao 14, Lu 9, Liu 3, Zhang 2, Chen 1, Sun 0.
Quarters: 42-35; 77-66; 115-95; 146-127.
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