Belief fuels phoenix rise

MANILA, Philippines — Prior to the PBA Governors’ Cup kickoff, the thought of Phoenix, a relatively young crew, holding pole position in a group filled with heavyweights seemed unlikely.

But driven by strong belief and competing game in and game out, the Fuel Masters erased all doubts and took the No. 1 spot in Group B, a bracket coach Charles Tiu described as the “Group of Death,” after the first round with a 4-1 card.

The Fuel Masters cemented its spot in front with a 102-93 victory over Blackwater (2-3) yesterday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

“I don’t want to say surprised (with the standing) but kami, as a team, we try to believe that we can win every game. We just ask them to compete every game and so far we’ve been competing this conference,” said Tiu.

The Fuel Masters were also victorious against Meralco, reigning Commissioner’s Cup champion Barangay Ginebra and Magnolia and lost only once, to Rain or Shine, prior to wrapping up their Round 1 slate with Win No. 4.

“All we ask is we want to give ourselves a chance to win, don’t self-destruct, don’t do silly things that would cost us the game and we’ve been doing it game by game,” said Tiu.

“We’ve been catching a lot of breaks (so far) and we just can’t relax. We’re in a good position to make the playoffs but kami naman, we take it step by step and we try to get as many wins as we can kasi we know the teams are going to catch up,” he added.

Jason Perkins banged in 25 points and grabbed six rebounds and joined hands with import BJ Johnson (23-12), Gian Mamuyac (18) and Ricci Rivero (10-8-9) in towing Phoenix to this bounceback to its 98-105 defeat to ROS last week.

Later, Rey Nambatac fired 30 spiked by dagger triple at the buzzer as injury riddled TNT arrested a two-game skid at the expense of Converge, 110-107.

The defending champion Tropang 5G improved to 2-2 while dropping the FiberXers to 3-2 with their second consecutive loss.