Wainwright made four of his eight three-point attempts, two of which coming in the second period where the Patriots broke out of a tight first half contest to enjoy a 41-26 halftime spread.
Wainwright replaced Gabe Freeman after the American import picked up his third personal foul in the second quarter where he scored 11 of his total output.
"The locals really stepped up for this game especially Rob. Team owner Mikee Romero challenged them to show their worth because this is not a battle of imports. So I’m glad they played very well," said coach Louie Alas.
Satria Muda BritAma tried to mount a rally but Freeman, Christian Coronel, Nonoy Baclao and Jason Dixon joined hands to lead the Patriots’ strong finish.
The Indonesians moved to within six, 52-46, on Mario Wuysang’s second three-pointer early in the final period.
But that was the closet Satria Muda could get as Freeman and Coronel buried consecutive three-pointers while Dixon and Baclao helped in the defensive end as the Patriots used a closing 20-4 run to finally silence their opponents.
Freeman paced the Patriots with 23 points and also grabbed 14 rebounds while Dixon added 11 markers, 12 rebounds and two shot blocks.
"We also did very well defensively. Our imports managed to contain Satria Muda’s reinforcements and that was one of the key," added Alas.
The win gave the Patriots a commanding 2-0 lead in the short best-of-five series.
Still Alas believes winning a third game is not easy as what people thinks after the one-sided contest.
"Closing out the series is the toughest part in a championship. They will host Game 3 and I expect a hard game with the hostile crowd backing them up. But winning the crown on the road is sweet and we have to prepare more on the mental side so we can perform much better than this game," added Alas.
Losing coach Fictor Roring blamed the defeat to the poor performance of his imports.
"Our locals played well but our imports struggled and you can see the margin of their game compared to Freeman and Dixon. I’m glad we’re going home because we play with more confidence at home. But we have to get better games from Hartman and Miller because I believe that they key to win the ABL title is the performance of the imports," said Roring who now holds a 0-4 record against the Patriots this season.
Source: Author Unknown | GMANews.TV
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