The Phoenix Fuel Masters are back on the winning track, and one of the heroes in their 125-108 shellacking of the Blackwater Bossing on Friday was Ken Tuffin. The Fil-Kiwi lefty erupted for 20 big points anchored on four triples to go along with 7 rebounds.
“We’re happy to get back on the winning side of things,” Tuffin said afterwards, while also pointing out that different Fuel Masters can carry the scoring load at any given time—that is, if they move the ball around and execute.
“I think we had a great amount of assists today, which is really good,” Tuffin pointed out. “Twenty-nine assists is really great, it just shows it could be anyone’s day shooting-wise, and we were looking for each other.”
They were doing that against the Bossing, who simply didn’t have an answer for Phoenix’s balanced scoring attack. Aside from Tuffin, James Dickey III and Jason Perkins also scored at least 20, with Dickey firing 27 and Perk going off for 25, also off the bench like the Fil-Kiwi sniper.
Tuffin Credits Phoenix’s Strong Third Quarter
The lefty forward also credited the Fuel Masters’ strong third quarter for their win on Friday, noting how it was night-and-day from their effort in a loss to the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
“It was a great team effort tonight. We wanted to come out strong, especially in the third quarter,” Tuffin said. “I think last game against Ginebra we were a little bit flat in that third quarter and maybe towards the end of the game. So, we put a lot of emphasis on that today.”
Indeed, Phoenix had a double-digit lead in the third quarter against Ginebra, only to let the crowd darlings get back in it to take a 77-75 lead heading into the fourth. Ginebra took over from there en route to the win.
This time around, against Blackwater, Phoenix extended a 67-56 lead to 76-56 two minutes after intermission and never looked back.
The challenge now is for the Fuel Masters to keep that kind of effort going as they try to make a push to make the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.
