Games today:
(Philsports Arena)
4:30 p.m. — Blackwater vs TNT
6:45 p.m. — Rain or Shine vs Meralco
Visiting team Bay Area crushed hapless Terrafirma, 130-76, to extend its agony in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Friday at the Philsports Arena.
Had there been a mercy rule, the game would have been practically over as early as the third period as the Dragons buried the Dyip with a 41-point lead, 84-43, before going full blast until the final buzzer.
The Dragons, led by import Andrew Nicholson, were business as usual and even padded their cushion to as many as 50 points multiple times.
The game ended with Bay Area tying the second most lopsided winning margin previously set by two other teams — U/Tex dumping Fiberglass, 170-116, on 30 September 1976 and Shell whipping Tanduay, 154-100, on 16 November 1986.
U/Tex also blasted Great Taste, 154-99 on 12 July 1980 to set the biggest winning margin by any team in league history.
Nicholson was focused on leading the Dragons to their sixth win in seven games to fortify their hold of solo second spot.
The National Basketball Association veteran pumped in 19 first-quarter points, the most produced by an import since Brandon Brown also tallied the same output in San Miguel Beer’s 102-114 loss to NLEX in the Governors’ Cup last season.
He ended the half at 31, the most by a reinforcement since Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Justin Brownlee scored 33 in a 111-113 overtime loss to NLEX during an out-of-the-country game in Dubai on 5 October 2019.
So lopsided was the match that Bay Area found no need to field in Nicholson for the most part in the second half.
The import finished with 37 points, built around a steady 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, while also grabbing 10 boards.
But the rest of the Dragons were so eager to perform as Qilong Zheng came off the bench and produced 17 points and seven rebounds while another reserve, Jianhua Song, ended up with 15 points and five boards.
For the Dyip, their misery continued as they absorbed their 22nd straight loss in franchise history.
They had a winless campaign in the Philippine Cup and is halfway to ending with yet another winless conference after losing six straight games.
Juami Tiongson led the way for Terrafirma with 21 points as import Lester Prosper didn’t play with so much fire and ended up with only 18.
The scores:
BAY AREA (130) — Nicholson 37, Zheng 17, Song 15, Zhu 12, Blankley 9, Lam 9, Yang 8, Si 7, Liu 5, Liang 4, Zhang 3, Ju 2, Reid 2.
TERRAFIRMA (76) — Tiongson 21, Prosper 18, Munzon 9, Cahilig 8, Camson 5, De Liano 4, Alolino 4, Mina 3, Gabayni 2, Calvo 2, Balagasay 0, Ramos 0, Javelona 0, Grospe 0.
QUARTERS: 35-18, 67-37, 101-62, 130-76.
