MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas squandered a lead as high as 20 points before escaping with a 152-149 win over Luzon All Stars in the Luzon leg of the 2018 PBA All-Stars at the Batangas City Sports Center.
All-Star MVP Terrence Romeo went ablaze offensively with 48 points, breaking the previous PBA All-Star record of 44 points by Negrense James Yap and Dylan Ababou.
June Mar Fajardo had double-double 26 points and 13 rebounds, while Jio Jalalon had triple-double 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists – duplicating the feat of retired PBA cager Willie Miller, who did the PBA All-Star triple-double feat in 2007.
“Nagtrabaho naman ang mga bata kahit na pagod na pagod sila, hindi nawala ang aggressiveness nila and gusto rin nilang mapasaya ang mga tao,” Yeng Guiao, who handled the Gilas team, said of the Friday night game.
Gilas got its shooting going early behind 3-point conversions from Romeo and inside baskets from Fajardo for an 86-70 lead, which went up to as high as 20 points several times in the third period.
Luzon mounted numerous runs late in the game – even cutting the deficit to as low as 148-144 – after back-to-back triples from Arwind Santos. Fajardo scored 5 straight points to extend the lead 152-144.
Luzon had its last push to come to within 149-152 on an inside hit by Japeth Aguilar and a triple by Santos. It had a chance to tie the count but LA Tenorio misfired in a trey attempt.
Aguilar had double-double 41 points and 12 rebounds while Santos and Calvin Abueva finished with 23 points apiece for Luzon All-Stars./PN
