Blackwater staved off elimination and kept its flickering playoffs hopes alive after beating listless Terrafirma, 96-86, in the battle of bottom feeders in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Wednesday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Prolific scorer George King anchored the Bossing’s third quarter breakaway after a tight first half to silence the Dyip and halt a four-game slide for a 2-7 win-loss record.

Bossing head coach Jeff Cariaso felt Blackwater did a better job defensively which in turn got their offense going especially in the second half.

“No doubt it was better. We feel like that has to be the focus. We always talk about our defense because that in itself will generate our offense and get us into what we want to do quicker,” Cariaso said of his squad which bounced back from a 23-point drubbing at the hands of Barangay Ginebra last Sunday.

“The only thing I told them, if you get stops, you’ll get opportunities to attack and that’s what happened.”

King finished with 26 points despite a bad shooting night of 9-of-31 from the field and grabbed 12 rebounds. He scored nine markers in the Bossing’s 26-18 third quarter breakout but was scoreless in the payoff period.

Justin Chua had a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds while Mike Ayonayon and Frederick Tungcab had 15 and 11 markers, respectively, for Blackwater.

The Dyip, who led by 10 points in the opening period, absorbed their 10th defeat in as many games.

Brandon Edwards got 29 points and 16 boards, Louie Sangalang added 17 while Brent Paraiso scored 12 for Terrafirma.

The scores:

BLACKWATER (96) — King 26, Chua 17, Ayonayon 15, Tungcab 11, David 8, Suerte 7, Escoto 4, Casio 2, Ponferrada 2, Jopia 2, Montalbo 2, Guinto 0.

TERRAFIRMA (86) — Edwards 29, Sangalang 17, Paraiso 12, Pringle 9, Nonoy 9, Ferrer 7, Carino 2, Romeo 1, Hernandez 0, Manuel 0, Ramos 0, Catapusan 0.

Quarters: 34-30, 45-49, 71-67, 96-86.