Petron's Wise move: New import helps Blaze Boosters trip Express

Petron's decision to bring in a new import turned out to be a wise move. Jeremy Wise scored 33 points in his Philippine debut to lead the Blaze Boosters to a big 115-106 win over Air21 Friday night in the PBA Governors Cup at the Araneta Coliseum. The 6-foot-2 lefty from Southern Mississippi only arrived early Friday morning, but bucked the lack of sleep and jetlag to steer the Boosters to their first win in the season-ending conference. He made eight of Petron's last 19 points, including two free throws that gave the Boosters a 111-106 lead with 21.8 seconds left and seal the outcome of the match. A replacement for the ineffective Ricky Harris, Wise, who had stints with the Bakersfield Jam in the NBA D-League and Sigma Barcellona in the Italian League, capped his impressive first game on local soil by going 10-of-11 from the foul line. Arwind Santos also had a monster game on both ends of the floor for Petron, finishing with 15 points and 21 rebounds while blocking five shots to make up for the absence of starting big man Jay Washington. The 6-foot-8 Washington left the game in the first half and never returned after injuring his left foot. He still managed to score seven points before going out for good. "Kailangang mag-double effort especially nung nawala si J-Wash (We need to double our efforts especially when Washington suffered an injury)," said Santos. Washington joined the growing list of casualties over at the Petron bench. Also nursing injuries are rookie Noy Baclao and veteran Danny Ildefonso (knee) and point guard Denok Miranda (sore foot). The loss was the second straight for Air21 and put to naught the brilliant offensive game of Dondon Hontiveros, who lighted up the scoreboard for 32 points. Two free throws by Hontiveros midway in the fourth period gave the Express their final taset of the lead, 97-96. Wise then sparked an 11-4 Petron run in a four-minute span, capping the burst with a coast-to-coast basket as the Boosters regained the lead, 107-101 in the final two minutes. The Express managed to come to within three (109-106), but Wise's two free throws ended Air21's hopes to turn the game around. - JVP, GMA News