By Ernest Hernandez
Pasay City, Philippines (Eagle News) – The NLEX Road Warriors made a strong statement to start the 2016 PBA Governor’s Cup with a win over Blackwater Elite, 90-96, behind Henry Walker’s 44 points.
As the game started, Walker did not waste time on showing what he can do by scoring 24 of his 44 points to help his team climb up to a 15-point lead to end he first quarter.
Since then, Blackwater had a hard time catching up to NLEX all throughout the game until late in the third quarter when they made a push to trim down the lead to 10 points with Lamont Dawson leading the way by scoring 10 of his 24 points.
The run fell short as Walker scored 12 more points in the final quarter to seal the win in his debut game with the Road Warriors.
This was the first game of Blackwater Elite after the passing of forward, Gilbert Bulawan, who was honored by the team by retiring his jersey number 11 before the start of the match. Players of Blackwater wore a black patch with Bulawan’s number throughout the game to honor their fallen teammate.
“I said to the players to start strong and match the energy of Blackwater,” said coach Boyet Fernandez of the NLEX Road Warriors. “I thought they will get that inspiration from Gilbert (Bulawan) that they will go hard and strong to start the game and offer it to him.”
Walker had help from Louie Alas and Mac Baracael who scored 12 points each while Blackwater was led by their import, Lamont Dawson who had 27 points, 17 rebounds and 4 blocks on his PBA debut.
The Road Warriors will now prepare to meet the PBA Governor’s Cup defending champions, the San Miguel Beermen, this coming Friday, July 22 while Blackwater Elite will seek to bounce back against the Star Hotshots on the same day.
The scores:
NLEX 96 – Walker 44, Alas 12, Baracael 12, Villanueva J. 11, Taulava 5, Soyud 4, Forrester 3, Lanete 3, Villanueva E. 2, Akl 0, Khobuntin 0, Monfort 0, Reyes 0.
BLACKWATER 90 – Dawson 27, Lastimosa 16, Cortez 14, Sena 8, Sumang 8, Canada 5, Pascual 5, Gamalinda 4, Dela Cruz 2, Erram 1, Cervantes 0.
Quarters: 31-16, 53-39, 78-68, 96-90
Photos courtesy: PBA Images
