Phoenix squanders 16-point lead against Bay Area Dragons

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters couldn’t hold on to their 16-point lead and saw Bay Area Dragons’ offense come alive in the last two quarters, 101-91, in the ongoing 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

With the loss, the coach Topex Robinson-led team dropped their third game in a row and has struggled since the departure of superstar Matthew Wright who is currently playing as an Asian import in the Japan B. League.

The Super LPG Fuel Masters had their second-best scoring quarter after the first frame as Tyler Tio and the rest of the shooters got it going and were all on the same page.

Tio together with newly-acquired small forward Javee Mocon were torching the guest foreign team in the first 12 minutes of the game and was looking to pull off a stunning upset against Bay Area.

However, the waxing-hot Myles Powell once again answered the call for the Dragons and put on a scoring clinic that quickly erased Phoenix’s double-digit lead.

Powell’s 30 points were too much to handle for the Super LPG Fuel Masters and was responsible for Bay Area’s 17-0 run to close the second quarter.

After Bay Area’s offensive onslaught, Phoenix never recovered in the game and also lost the third quarter battle by 12 points, 32-20.

During Bay Area’s third-quarter mastery, Powell was unstoppable and scored 17 big points in just 12 minutes of action.

“I was really disappointed with the start of the game. We were a step off, we were giving fouls, we were giving a lot of baskets on dribble penetration and in transition,” said Bay Area’s head coach Brian Goorjian.

Hayden Blakely backstopped Powell in the scoring department and contributed 15 points while Glen Yang and Duncan Reid chipped in 14 points each.

Meanwhile, Mocon top-scored for Phoenix with 22 big points while the sweet-shooting Tio had 21 points on 5/7 shooting from the three-point area.