Navarro lifts NorthPort past Terrafirma

Will Navarro was lights off from the field to lead NorthPort to a convincing, 112-93, bounce back victory over Terrafirma in Group A of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The forward had the hot hands in burying the Dyip in the lopsided match as the Batang Pier, who brought back Australian Venky Jois as a surprise replacement for Taylor Johns, barged into the win column after an opening day loss.

Navarro finished his career night coming off the bench with 31 points on a crisp 13-of-20 field goal shooting he spiked with five rebounds, two assists and two steals for NorthPort.

“Based on our last practice, we really need to play as a team, we need to distribute the ball. We can’t play too much one-on-one or two-man game. Our players played well. We challenged our second group headed by Will Navarro to deliver also and be consistent,” Batang Pier coach Bonnie Tan said.

NorthPort’s bench mob outscored its Terrafirma counterpart, 61-29.

“At least we saw that if we follow our game plan we can pull through this game,” added Tan, whose squad recovered from a stinging 101-95 loss to defending champion TNT last Tuesday.

Navarro, who had 11 points in the fourth quarter, gave NorthPort its biggest lead, 106-79, off a jumper with 5:18 left.

Jois, who joined the team just last Thursday, had a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds while adding six assists, a steal and a block for the Batang Pier. Joshua Munzon got 14 points and Arvin Tolentino added 10 for NorthPort.

The Batang Pier pulled away for good in the third quarter and sustained their double-digit lead to head into the payoff period with an 85-70 advantage punctuated by a buzzer-beater half-court heave by Fran Yu.

NorthPort created a 16-point separation early in the second quarter, 38-22, only for Terrafirma to close in, 51-43, at the break.

Just like in their 127-95 opening-day loss to Converge, the Dyip’s offense sputtered in the first half after shooting only 31 percent as they bricked 30 of their 44 attempts from the field.

The Batang Pier, on the other hand, lit the basket by making 21-of-40 shooting clip in a balanced scoring effort led by Munzon.

Juami Tiongson led Terrafirma with 19 points, Stanley Pringle had 17 markers, 10 rebounds, seven assists while import Antonio Hester tallied 13 points and 11 boards.

Kevin Ferrer and Christian Standhardinger scored 13 and 10, respectively, for the Dyip.

The Scores:

NORTHPORT (112) — Navarro 31, Jois 16, Munzon 14, Tolentino 10, Amores 8, Jalalon 8, Yu 7, Nelle 6, Tratter 5, Cuntapay 3, Bulanadi 2, Flores 2, Taha 0.

TERRAFIRMA (93) — Tiongson 19, Pringle 17, Hester 13, Ferrer 13, Standhardinger 10, Carino 9, Cahilig 5, Hernandez 5, Ramos 2, Olivario 0.

Quarters: 30-20, 51-43, 85-70, 112-93.