PBA: David Murrell brings the bounce to Blackwater’s On Tour win

Blackwater Bossing’s David Murrell during a PBA on Tour game vs NLEX Road Warriors. –PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines–David Murrell was glad to provide some entertainment for fans in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan on Wednesday when Blackwater edged out NLEX to begin the PBA’s exhibition caravan while the Governors’ Cup is on hiatus.

Murrell threw it down five times, twice off a pair of alley-oop passes from RK Ilagan, and a breakaway two-hander that proved to be the difference-maker in the 109-107 win in the series dubbed as “PBA On Tour.”

“It came out naturally,” Murrell said. “Obviously, we wanted to give them a show, and that what I tried to do.”

The league’s last Slam Dunk champion, to this date, back in 2023, actually started the contest with a rim-rattler before the aforementioned conversions off Ilagan’s lobs, which Murrell said is a testament to their familiarity.

“Me and RK had this great connection for backdoor lobs, so we just wanted to hype the crowd and we did it,” said Murrell, who has been teammates with Ilagan since their days at Converge.

Blackwater won the only game it will play in the On Tour, as it gears up for the return of the season-ending conference in the second week of October.

Before the break last month, the Bossing were at 3-3, good for fourth in a tight Group B considered the “Group of Death.”

For its buildup to the resumption, however, Blackwater is without Sedrick Barefield, who is in Japan to represent Gilas Pilipinas in the upcoming Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

“Right now, we’re trying to get all the rust out that we had in this break and thankfully we came out here and got the win,” said Murrell.