NorthPort forges ‘rubber’

My guys don’t want to take a vacation. They really want to be in the semis.

MICHAEL Qualls lifts NorthPort past NLEX.

NorthPort shocked NLEX, 115-90, to keep its title hopes alive in the quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Michael Qualls delivered a dominant performance while Christian Standhardinger flexed his muscles for the Batang Pier, who pulled off a big win to forge a rubber match on Wednesday.

Qualls delivered 39 points, 16 rebounds and five assists while Standhardinger turned I a double-double performance of 24 points and 13 rebounds while Sean Anthony chipped in 12 points, four rebounds and two assists for NorthPort, which is on the brink of shocking top seed Road Warriors.

“My guys don’t want to take a vacation. They really want to be in the semis,” said NorthPort coach Pido Jarencio, reminding his team that the mission is far from over.

“But this is not yet over. This is just the first half and the second half will be on Wednesday. Our goal is to reach the semis and from there, we’ll figure out what to do.”

After a red-hot start, the Batang Pier erected a 61-40 lead as Qualls tallied 20 points in the first half.

NorthPort padded the lead to 26, 79-53, 4:30 left in the third.

Tension, however, soared when Paul Varilla and Qualls got into a heated commotion with the Road Warriors trying to crawl back in the game.

Varilla and Erram were thrown out, allowing Qualls and Standhardinger to convert their charities and rip the game wide open entering the crucial stretch.

“I’m so happy that we came out aggressive,” Jarencio said.

“We came out in full force and even our second helped the first group that resulted to a balanced attack.”

JR Quiñahan notched 20 points while Kiefer Ravena had 16 markers, six boards and five assist for the Road Warriors, who drew only 12 points from import Manny Harris.