AL THORNTON rediscovered his shooting touch and the NLEX Road Warriors snagged their fifth straight win via a 102-86 trashing of expansion team Kia yesterday in the 40th PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Thornton exploded for a whopping 50 points in their 96-90 win over the Barangay Ginebra Kings last March 11 but slowed down in NLEX’s 94-81 win over the GlobalPort Batang Pier last Sunday, where he just managed 19 points.
Thornton was back in his usual fiery form against Kia as he torched the nets with 33 points aside from grabbing 14 rebounds.
By padding their winning streak to five, the Road Warriors moved up to solo fifth spot with their sixth win in 10 games.
Seven-foot-three import PJ Ramos finished with 41 points and 23 rebounds for Kia, which dropped out of the top eight with its sixth defeat against four wins.
Only the top eight teams will advance to the playoffs with the top two earning outright entries to the semifinals.
NLEX dominated the four period, pulling off a 33-14 scoring advantage that allowed them to come back after trailing by as many as 11 points in the third quarter.
BOX SCORES
NLEX (102)- Thornton 33, J. Villanueva 20, Cardona 16, Lingganay 12, Taulava 10, Borboran 4, E. Villanueva 4, Canaleta 3, Ramos 0, Raymundo 0, Camson 0, H. Arboleda 0.
KIA (86)- Ramos 41, Cervantes 8, Buensuceso 7, Revilla 6, Avenido 6, Cawaling 6, Dehesa 5, Poligrates 3, Thiele 2, Yee 2, Alvarez 0, Pascual 0.
QUARTERSCORES: 16-22, 36-45, 69-72, 102-86.
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