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| Juan Gomez De Liaño got the last laugh against Adrian Nocum. Peter Baltazar |
LAS PIÑAS—Converge put an impressive passing game by Adrian Nocum into waste as it tied the PBA Governors' Cup quarterfinals against Rain Or Shine with a 130-125 Game 2 win on Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
The FiberXers held on despite Nocum looking good as the Elasto Painters' main point guard as the combo guard fizzled down the stretch.
After tying the game with a three-pointer with 3:05 left and keeping ROS in it by assisting on Luis Villegas' triple a minute later, Nocum committed three crucial turnovers, the second of which leading to a Mikey Williams that upped Converge's lead to four 127-123 with 35 seconds left.
Cameron Clark then stole the ball from Aaron Fuller, forcing Nocum to foul Calvin Abueva to stop the clock with 31 seconds remaining.
Abueva made two free throws, but he too committed a blunder when he fouled Deo Cuajao while taking a four-pointer with 26.2 seconds to go.
Luckily for the FiberXers, though, Cuajao only went 2-for-4 from the foul line, and their lead was just down to four 129-125.
The Elasto Painters got a ray of life as Alec Stockton also missed a crucial free throw, but he bounced back by stealing the ball from Nocum in the end.
Clark led Converge, the only team that forced a 1-1 deadlock in the quarterfinals two games in, with 22 points, three rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks.
Juan Gomez De Liaño added 20 points on 4-for-5 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, and eight assists.
Stockton and Balti Baltazar collected 18 markers each, with the latter also grabbing 11 boards.
Fuller led ROS with 26 points on 6-for-10 field goals, 15 rebounds, and one assist, but he committed seven turnovers too.
Nocum finished with 22 points and a career-high 18 assists with three and one block, but he had four errors too.
Jhonard Clarito also had 22 markers alongside six caroms, one dime, and one steal.
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