SOMETIMES the stars align and a team of overachieving underdogs beat their favored counterparts to post an unlikely victory.
This is what happened when perennial whipping boys Blackwater Elite surprised this conference’s surprise team NLEX Road Warriors with a shock, 107-106, decision in the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup.
Blackwater leaned on a pair of unwanted heroes in Roi Sumang and import Henry Walker. Sumang scored a career-high 32 points. Walker had 29 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. The Elite are unbeaten since Walker arrived.
Despite a stellar collegiate career Sumang dropped all the way down to the third round before being picked 26th overall by GlobalPort in the 2015 PBA Draft. The Batang Pier didn’t have any use for him and he was lucky to be picked up by Blackwater.
Walker is the consummate basketball journeyman. He played in 14 other professional basketball teams all over the world – including Alaska and NLEX – before ending up at Blackwater.
These two unwanted heroes showed that they’ve got game as they led the Elite to an unlikely victory.
Sumang set a milestone of sorts as he drilled 5-of-10 three pointers to finish with 32 markers and become the first player drafted in the third round to score the most number of points since Peter June Simon tallied 42 points against the Air21 Express.
The Elite seems to have the number of the Road Warriors. They’ve won all three encounters against NLEX this season.
With the win Blackwater (2 wins, 3 losses) climbed to 8th place ahead of the Phoenix Petroleum Fuelmasters (2-4), the Globalport Batang Pier (1-1), the Alaska Aces (0-4) and Kia Picanto (0-6).
Leading the standings are the unbeaten Star Hotshots (3-0). Trailing them are the Meralco Bolts (5-1), Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (3-1), NLEX (5-2), the San Miguel Beermen (2-1), TNT Katropa (2-1) and the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (2-2)
Sumang and Walker will not lead the Elite to a PBA championship any time soon. But sometimes, when the ball bounces just right and their opponents are not watching out carefully, they can lead Blackwater past any other PBA team on any given night.
