Myles Powell picked up from where he left off and reaffirmed his role as the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup scoring machine.
The dead shot guard knocked in 11 three-point shots on his way to finishing with 50 points to power visiting Bay Area to a smashing 120-87 victory over Rain or Shine Friday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
After being idle for more than a month, Powell returned and immediately reintroduced his explosive brand of game.
Powell set the record for the most number of treys this season, but the player who briefly saw action for the Philadephia 76ers last year also made his mark in the PBA’s all-time record books.
With still 3:27 left in the third period, Powell had already hit his 11th triple of the game and had tallied 50 points before he was pulled out with still more than two minutes left before the start of the final frame.
Powell also nearly outscored the entire Rain or Shine team after three quarters as the Elasto Painters could only hit 58 entering the final period.
Andrew Nicholson, who took over as the Dragons’ reinforcement for four games, also registered 50 points in their previous game, but it took him the entire game to achieve such output in Bay Area’s 92-89 loss to Meralco on 4 November.
Powell became the latest import to hit 11 treys in a game, joining Jerod Ward, who also came up with the same output on June 6, 2001 while playing for Mobiline in the fourth all-time list for most treys in a game among imports.
Allan Caidic holds the all-time, single-game three-point shots made with 17 while Jose Slaughter is the all-time leader among imports with 14.
In picking up its latest win, Bay Area vaulted into second place with a 7-2 win-loss record, the same record being held by Converge, the hottest team in the tournament, which has stretched its winning run to six.
By virtue of the win-over-the-other rule, the Dragons will secure the second spot and with still three games left, expect the Hong Kong-based team to zero in on one of the top two berths that carry a twice-to-beat advantage in the playoffs. Rey Joble
The scores:
BAY AREA (120) — Powell 50, Liu 11, Song 9, Lam 9, Ju 7, Ewing 6, Si 6, Zhu 6, Blankley 6, Zheng 4, Yang 2, Reid 2, Liu X. 0, Liang 0.
RAIN OR SHINE (87) — Asistio 20, Nambatac 12, Norwood 9, Pearson 9, Nieto 8, Belga 6, Caracut 5, Ponferada 5, Santillan 4, Clarito 3, Borboran 2, Torres 2, Demusis 2, Guinto 0, Mamuyac 0, Ildefonso 0.
Quarters: 28-27; 57-42; 87-58; 120-87.
