NorthPort is not resting on its laurels following a historic sweep of San Miguel Corporation squads.

Proving doubters and naysayers wrong, the Batang Pier turned back San Miguel Beer, 105-104, all thanks to Kadeem Jack’s game-winning basket to snap a two-game losing skid and move closer to a quarterfinals twice-to-beat advantage in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Wednesday night at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.

Jack saved NorthPort from a devastating meltdown after squandering a 24-point lead as the team climbed to a share of the top spot with Converge with identical 8-3 slates.

“It’s always a great feeling setting history. Every time you achieve something like today. It’s a great feeling for us, the team and the franchise,” Batang Pier forward Arvin Tolentino said.

Tolentino had 22 points to back Jack, who had 38 markers with his biggest basket coming off a turnaround jumper with 16.7 seconds left in the game to put NorthPort back in front.

‘You see how we play the game. Whenever we don’t share the ball or are low on energy, that’s the time we lose.’

But the job is far from over.

The Batang Pier still need to get past Blackwater on Saturday to get a clearer picture of their playoffs direction.

“It’s hard to see where we are in a very tight race in the standings. We try not to focus on that and we just look at the next game. Looking at the standings, a win or a loss will greatly affect where you are on the standings,” Tolentino said.

“For now, we cannot focus on that because we still have one last game in the eliminations. We’ll see after that. Whoever we face, we’ll do our best to make it to the next step. Then after that get into the semis and hopefully finals.”

The Batang Pier finally achieved a triple-kill over SMC teams following their earlier 107-103 win over Magnolia last 3 December and a 109-106 decision over Barangay Ginebra last 8 January to arrest a 14-game head-to-head losing skid over the Kings.

“I guess everyone just believes in each other. We believed in that since the start of the conference. (We) believe that we can do it if we stick together,” Tolentino added.

“You see how we play the game. Whenever we don’t share the ball or are low on energy, that’s the time we lose. But every time we play together as a team, enjoying the game and believing we can win, it lifts our morale.”

But what made the victory sweeter for NorthPort was the fact that it ended its back-to-back setbacks including a 20-point rout at the hands of Rain or Shine.

“We were talking about starting the game strong. Since after our game against Rain or Shine because we’ve started flat in our last two games, offense and defense. We practiced hard to get the guys going and it paid off,” Tolentino said.

“Coach Bonnie (Tan) challenged us, he was livid. But we took it as a challenge, each and every one of us, especially Kadeem and we got this win.”