A pair of really interesting games in the PBA Philippine Cup on Wednesday night.

The Blackwater Elite snapped their two-game losing streak after beating the NLEX Road Warriors, 96-85.

Art dela Cruz scored 18 points and hauled down 8 rebounds to lead the Elite. Ronjay Buenafe had a nice line of 13-4-5, while top rookie Mac Belo had 9-5-5.

With the win, Blackwater improved in the league standings with a 3-2 card. The Road Warriors, meanwhile, hold the second worst record at 1-3.

Watch the highlights of the Blackwater-NLEX game here:

*****

In the second game, Alaska escaped the Meralco Bolts, 81-79, thanks to a game-winning three-pointer from Chris Banchero.

The Aces were down nine, 75-66, at the 3:09 mark of the payoff period. But the Bolts couldn’t buy a bucket in the next few minutes as Alaska staged a 10-2 blast to set up the clutch triple from Banchero.

Meralco had 4.1 seconds to try and snatch the game away, but Chris Newsome — who scored 23 points for the Bolts — missed the attempt on the final play.

Alaska’s Vic Manuel won Best Player of the Game honors with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

The Aces and Bolts hold identical 2-2 win-loss cards.

Photo from PBA Media Bureau