CONVERGE eased the pain of its sorry loss to Meralco on opening day with a 92-83 drubbing of Phoenix Super LPG in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila Sunday.
Blowing away what had looked like a won game against the Bolts, 89-91, the FiberXers were quick to amend, pulling away without looking back versus the Fuel Masters.
Alex Stockton, with a game-high 18 points, and Justin Arana and Justine Baltazar, in flexing their muscles inside the paint, led the top performers as the FiberXers hit the win-column while sending the Fuel Masters reeling to a second straight loss.
Also in the tournament kickoff Friday also at NAS, the Fuel Masters suffered an 87-95 setback at the hands of the Terrafirma Dyip.
Kai Ballungay and his teammates jumped out of the gate in hunt of a turnaround performance, taking the opening quarter at 24-19.
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But Stockton and his teammates cranked it up in the second period, raced ahead, 44-38, at halftime and kept the pace through the final half.
Stockton nailed two treys to highlight his 18-point outing also laced by six rebounds, two blocks and one assist in 30 minutes of play.
Providing heavy lifting inside were Arana and Baltazar who combined for 19 markers, 26 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks.
Schonny Winston and Bryan Santos, meanwhile, sizzled coming off the bench, with the former chalking up 14 points and eight rebounds and the latter registering 12 points with 3-of-6 three-point shooting.
Ballungay and Tyler Tio led the way for the Fuel Masters with 15 and 13 points, respectively.
The FiberXers dominated on all fronts as they hit better from the field with a 39-percent clip, outrebounded their foes, 65-52, and issued more assists at 23-13.
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Stockton, Racal, Baltazar, Kevin Racal and JL delos Santos formed a solid starting crew for Converge that blasted their Phoenix counterparts, 44-26. (SB)
The scores:
Converge 92 - Stockton 18, Winston 14, B. Santos 12, Arana 10, Baltazar 9, Nermal 7, M. Garcia 6, Racal 5, Caralipio 5, Delos Santos 2, Corpuz 2, Ambohot 2, Suerte 0, R. Santos 0.
Phoenix 83 - Ballungay 15, Tio 13, Salado 8, Alejandro 8, Tuffin 7, Rivero 6, Camacho 6, R. Garcia 6, Soyud 5, Ular 4, Verano 3, Jazul 1, Manganti 1, Daves 0.
Quarterscores: 19-24, 44-38, 67-57, 92-83
