Unbeaten undonehot

Fuel Masters halt Dyip perfect run

MANILA, Philippines — A well-oiled Phoenix Fuel Masters led by red-hot Ricci Rivero forced the Terrafirma Dyip to run out of gas.

Succeeding where three others have failed, the Fuel Masters stopped the charging Dyip dead on their tracks, 133-105, to draw level with their victims at 3-1 in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night at Ynares Center-Antipolo.

Rivero soared to a career-high 40 points to go with six rebounds, eight assists and three steals to grease the 28-point romp that got them back on the groove after an 86-93 defeat to Meralco.

Rivero made the most damage in the middle quarters, where his 25-point splurge highlighted by five booming triples enabled the Charles Tiu-coached side to rip the game apart from a 25-23 contest.

“We started really strong, we were running up and down, we were defending and making the most out of their (Dyip’s) misses,” said Rivero, who produced the most points in the franchise since Matthew Wright’s 42 back in 2017.

“All credit to Ricci. He hit four threes to end the second quarter and that’s big for us to get the lead, “ said Tiu, who also drew a big outside shooting night from Francis Escandor with 20 points spiked by three triples and one four-ball. “As a team we had 19 threes, led by Ricci who had seven. Team shooting was good, I wish we could shoot like this every game.”

Rivero’s energy and brilliance rubbed off on the rest of the Phoenix crew.

Import James Dickey III turned in a solid 14-point, 13-rebound statline and led the team’s defensive efforts against Terrafirma counterpart Mubashar Ali. The seven-foot Ali finished with 13 – 20 markers off his average in their first three victories – while also hauling down 17 boards – two short of his usual.

“Our focal point was really finding a way to stop their import. We saw what he did with his 50-piece (game). Credit to guys like Matthew Daves and our import James Dickey, we were able to stop their import (Ali),” said Tiu.

Jerrick Ahanmisi carried the Dyip’s scoring load with 37, the most in his PBA career.