Powell scatters 50 pts, Dragons torch E-Painters

ANTIPOLO, Philippines — Myles Powell is back with a bang in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup and so does Bay Area.

Picking up from where he left off, Powell turned in a 50-point, 11-triple scorcher to power the Dragons to a bounceback 120-87 win over Rain or Shine yesterday at the Ynares Center here.

Powell rattled up 14 straight points in a game-changing run in the second quarter that led to 57-42 tear and set the tone for the Dragons’ quick recovery from the 92-89 heartbreaker to Meralco last Friday for a 7-2 record overall.

“It feels great. I’m blessed to be in this situation where I could get back up with the brothers,” said Powell, whose 11 long bombs equaled the fourth all-time most among imports.

The 6-foot-2 dynamo played his first game since anchoring Bay Area to a 4-0 mark via a 106-100 dispatching of Converge last Oct. 7.  He then gave way to fellow import Andrew Nicholson in the team’s next four assignments per agreement with the PBA.

By their ninth outing, coach Brian Goorjian had to choose which one would suit up until at least the end of the elims and picked Powell.

“We feel we have a real shake at a Top 2 finish (and twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals), Myles will take us to that point,” said Goorjian after the team caught up with idle Converge at No. 2. “And then again, we’ll go from there.”

Later, Meralco squeaked past Blackwater in overtime, 102-98, making it two in a row with KJ McDaniels despite squandering a 13-point margin in the fourth.

With a 3-5 card, the Bolts moved past the Bossing (3-7) at joint 10th.

Goorjian lauded Powell and the team’s strength and conditioning coach Francesco Berre for putting in the work to keep the import sharp during his month-long layoff.

“I thought I was going to give him a lot of rest but I didn’t have to because he worked the whole of that one month (lull) and came back ready to play,” said Goorjian.