MANILA – Blackwater Elite bowed out of contention in the semifinals of the East Asia League Terrific 12 after a 109-69 defeat to Chiba Jets at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion in Macau, China.
It was the second consecutive defeat in as many matches by the depleted Elite in Group A but Elite head coach Aris Dimaunahan remains positive as it will serve as learning experience for them. “Though we lost two games, we took it as all learning for us,” Dimaunahan said. “Comeback home, we’ll do better in the third conference.”
The Jets immediately showed its dominance on the Elite as they scored the first six points and never looked back as the lead went up to as high as 109-67 in the final quarter.
Marqus Blakely finished with double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds while Alex Stepheson also submitted double-double figures of 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Elite.
Blackwater played the tournaments minus rookie Bobby Ray Parks Jr. and Michael Digregorio and back-ups Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Matthew Salem, and Mike Cortez.
American-Japanese Michael Parker with 22 points and 13 rebounds, while import Josh Duncan added 20 markers and former Japan national team player Yuki Togashi had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Jets.
TNT KaTropa, on the other hand, also lost its chance into the Final Four leaving just San Miguel Beermen as the lone PBA-based team which still has a chance of making it to the semifinals./PN
