FILE–NorthPort Batang Pier’s Arvin Tolentino and Will Navarro during a PBA Commissioner’s Cup game. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Even as one of the league’s top teams in the current PBA Commissioner’s Cup, Northport was the underdog once on Tuesday against perennial contender San Miguel Beer.
The Batang Pier proved all the naysayers wrong once again and Arvin Tolentino credited it to the squad’s never-ending trust in one another.
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READ: PBA: NorthPort edges San Miguel, closes in on twice-to-beat
“I guess everyone just believes in one another since the start of the conference. That’s been our foundation,” said Tolentino after their 105-114 squeaker over the Beermen.
“We can do it if we stick together and we see how we played our game whenever we share the ball… Every time we play together as a team, enjoy the game and believe we can win, that’s when our morale goes up.”
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Tolentino and company shot down the Beermen to bounce back from a two-game losing slide and improve to an 8-3 record, tying Converge at the second spot behind TNT, which holds a 6-2 card.
READ: PBA: On top of the world for now, NorthPort has work cut out for them
Tolentino did everything and more for the Batang Pier after stuffing the stat sheet with 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block in the dub.
The trust that the former Ginebra swingman mentioned was evident in their showing with almost every Batang Pier contributing to knock off the Beermen.
Import Kadeem Jack bolstered the Northport win with 38 points and seven rebounds while local gunners William Navarro and Joshua Munzon scored 17 and 12, respectively.
Even with those contributions, though, it wasn’t an easy outing against the Beermen and Tolentino had been expecting nothing less.
“You guys know that San Miguel is a champion team with an eight-time MVP [June Mar Fajardo] there, CJ Perez and they have a lot of veterans so it wasn’t easy even though we were up big,” he said. “They’re really contenders.”
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Batang Pier looks to finish the elimination round of the conference on top when they play their last game on Friday against, coincidentally, the FiberXers at the same venue.
