ANTIPOLO, Rizal — Converge kept on winning and by a big margin, they separated themselves from the group of teams that were fighting for the second place by defeating Magnolia 114-97 in a Philippine Cup game at the Ynares Center on Friday. With this win, they are at the same level as NLEX and Rain or Shine, the teams that are leading the standings.
The FiberXers with 6-2 records have already secured a quarterfinals berth and they are now seeing the possibility of getting a twice-to-beat advantage. Before the game, they were on a winning streak of two games and then there was a two-week break for the league.
Coach Delta Pineda, however, after the emphatic display, reminded that the main objective is still to be among the Top 4.
“Our dream is still to make it into the Top 4,” Pineda said at the postgame press conference.
Converge started to extend their lead in the final period. Justine Baltazar was front and center in a 10-2 run, which changed the score from 82-80 to 92-82 with less than six minutes remaining. The difference became 19 points at the end of the game, 114-95, as the FiberXers eliminated all the possibilities of a Magnolia comeback.
Gomez de Liano, Juan was the bright spot for Converge as he scored 27 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished off six assists. At the same time, Baltazar racked up a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds. Alec Stockton 23 points to the score.
Magnolia’s Zav Lucero was able to score 31 points, but it wasn’t sufficient to prevent the coached by LA Tenorio team from going down to 5-3.
Final Scores:
Converge 114 – Gomez de Liano 27, Stockton 23, Baltazar 19, Concepcion 11, Winston 10, Arana 9, Garcia 7, Muyang 6, Caralipio 2, Racal 0, R. Santos 0, Delos Santos 0, Javillonar 0
Magnolia 97 – Lucero 31, Lastimosa 13, Barroca 10, Gomez de Liano 10, Laput 8, Eriobu 7, Lee 7, Dela Rosa 5, Koon 4, Sangalang 2
Quarter Scores:
19-27, 42-50, 78-77, 114-97