There’s a new fearsome twosome in the PBA and this duo is starting to terrorize the opponents in the Philippine Basketball Association.
Justin Arana and Justine Baltazar, the newest solid frontcourt combo in Asia’s pioneering professional basketball league, had started to make their presence felt and for three games, they’ve become the game changer for the Converge FiberXers, who now rolled to their third straight victory capped by their 107-97 triumph over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Wednesday night at the Philsports Arena.
Both players asserted their dominance and came away with double-double performances.
Arana produced 18 points and pulled down 17 rebounds while Baltazar, this season’s top overall rookie pick, produced 13 points and 22 boards for Converge.
With the Justin and Justine taking charge, the FiberXers were able to show total domination in the battle of the boards, 62-40.
The FiberXers had won three in a row, including victories to TNT and Rain or Shine, two consistent playoff performers, giving indication that they’re now ready to embrace big-time basketball.
Converge coach Franco Atienza downplayed their victories against these two teams and although it had given his team some sort of a momentum going to its May 10 game against Ginebra, he doesn’t want to carried away with these wins against these crack squads that are visibly handicapped.
“First of all, the TNT we faced is just coning off a championship campaign, so pagod yun,” said Atienza. “Hindi pa nakapag-practice yun at wala pa si Jayson Castro. Rain or Shine, they’re missing a lot of their big guys. We’ll take the wins and we’re proud of the work we put in, but we haven’t really proven anything yet and nasa gitna pa lang tayop ng eliminations.”
