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| Cade Flores had himself a career night to help NorthPort stun NLEX. PBA Images |
MANILA--NLEX blew its best chance to seal the top seed ahead of the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals after falling prey to NorthPort, 108-113, on Wednesday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The Batang Pier unleashed their spoiler mode in the third quarter, erupting for 40 points to take an 86-76 lead heading into the fourth.
Robbie Herndon tried to will the Road Warriors back into the game late in the fourth with a four-pointer and three free throws a few plays after that cut the Batang Pier's lead to two, 110-108, with 31 seconds to go.
However, Fran Yu drove past the NLEX defense and scored a layup that upped the lead back to four, 112-108, with 12.2 seconds to go.
Herndon to force overtime, but he missed his next four-point attempt.
He had a chance to trim the gap, though, after Joshua Munzon, a better free-throw shooter than Cade Flores, tried to trick the referees into taking two charities as if he was the one fouled by Enoch Valdez, giving him a technical foul.
Herndon, however, missed the technical free throw, and Flores split his charities to essentially ice the game.
Flores finished with a career-high 26 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, and two steals for NorthPort, which won for the first time since letting go of Arvin Tolentino and William Navarro and moved up to 2-8.
Yu added 21 points, two rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
Herndon finished with 21 points as well, with six rebounds and two assists to lead NLEX, which fell to 8-3.
The result opened a chance for San Miguel, which will face Converge later Wednesday, to move up to first place in the standings.
Follow him on X: @IvanSaldajeno
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