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FiberXers snap out of the rut after heart-to-heart talk

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Justin Arana (No. 15)reaches for the rebound.
—PBA IMAGESJustin Arana (No. 15)reaches for the rebound.
—PBA IMAGES

Justin Arana (No. 15) reaches for the rebound. —PBA IMAGES

ANTIPOLO—Converge won a game for the first time in over three weeks, not only restoring lost confidence but also keeping its grip on one of the four quarterfinal berths in Group A of the PBA Governors’ Cup.

“This team went through a really rough stretch,” coach Delta Pineda said in Filipino after the FiberXers snapped a four-game skid with a 120-103 rout of the Terrafirma Dyip on Tuesday at the Ynares Center here.

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The victory enabled Converge to regain solo hold of the fourth spot at 4-4 while sending Terrafirma down to 3-5. It was also the first win of the FiberXers since thrashing the guest team Macau Giant Pandas by 25 points before their downward spiral began.

Losses at the hands of San Miguel Beer, TNT, NLEX, and again to San Miguel in succession prompted frustration and multiple import changes, from original choice Jalen Hudson to returning Jamaal Franklin to another former import in Cameron Clark.

Clark made his debut against the Dyip, posting 22 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks, and the FiberXers are hoping that he turns out to be the right mix.

Pineda also hopes that a recent team meeting to delve into what has gone wrong would translate into something positive.

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“The morale of the team was really low because of the string of losses,” Pineda said. “That’s why we had a heart-to-heart talk after our recent loss [against San Miguel] to discuss the things that we need to change, what we need to adjust or if the players are playing for the team or for their individual statistics.

“We agreed that we consider the team as like our family and they need to sacrifice for their team, their family,” he added.

Terrafirma lost a game it sorely needed to win after tying Converge last week by handing NLEX its first loss.

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But the Dyip never got themselves in the groove right from the beginning, with Calvin Abueva and surprise starter Jaydee Tungcab leading the charge for the FiberXers.

Terrafirma import Justin Strings had 28 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals, but figured in an ugly postgame incident where he tried to confront either Abueva or Alec Stockton after the game, as witnessed by several fans.

Those who saw the incident also said that Strings even rushed towards the FiberXers dugout through the backdoor, only to be stopped by cooler heads from both teams and from the PBA staff.

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Meanwhile, action continues Wednesday in this city, with San Miguel favored to dominate Titan Ultra in the opener at 5:15 p.m. while Group B coleader Phoenix faces streaking Magnolia at 7:30 p.m.

San Miguel was coming off a 52-point rout of Macau in Rodriguez, Rizal, to go 6-2 in Group A, while Titan Ultra got clobbered by 34 on the same day by TNT.



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Phoenix, on the other hand, looks to get its bearings before the break after being handed a loss by Blackwater to fall in a tie with Rain or Shine at 4-2, even as Magnolia, with a 3-3 slate, goes for a third consecutive triumph. INQ

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Andrew Flintoff’s Son Produces Batting Masterclass In Lancashire’s 443-Run Innings

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Rocky Flintoff, son of legendary England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, is following in his father’s footsteps. The 18-year-old has so far played five First-Class matches and 14 List A matches. Back in 2025, he scored a historic century for England Lions against a Cricket Australia XI, surpassing his father to become the youngest player to score a maiden century for the team. Flintoff, then aged 16 years and 291 days, surpassed his father’s maiden ton for the England Lions, which Andrew scored at the age of 20 years and 28 days.

On Tuesday, Rocky scored a 65-ball century for Lancashire against Somerset in the One-Day Cup. The young batter eventually reached 123 off 76 balls. His innings included seven sixes and 10 fours. His teammate Keaton Jennings scored 156 off 127 balls. Courtesy of the two centuries, Lancashire posted 443/6 in 50 overs. Lancashire won the match by 174 runs.

Last week, Andrew Flintoff said he had stepped down from his role as coach of the second-string England Lions following his appointment as head coach of the Sydney Thunder in Australia’s T20 Big Bash League. The former England captain had been in charge of the Lions for almost two years after returning to cricket in 2024 following a car crash while presenting the BBC motoring show Top Gear.

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“Unfortunately, I’ve made the decision to step away from my role with the Lions,” said the 48-year-old Flintoff.

“Not only have I enjoyed my time and the opportunity to work with the best young cricketers in the country, but I have also taken great pride in seeing them develop.

“I’d like to thank the coaches and staff for all their passion, tireless work and support they give every day. In particular, Ed Barney, who I’ve loved working with and was so lucky to have as a performance director, and obviously Rob (Key) for trusting me with one of the most important roles in English cricket.

“I can’t wait to get started with the Thunder later in the year and see where coaching takes me.”

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Flintoff was England Lions head coach for 23 months, but also spent time with England’s senior white-ball teams and was part of the backroom staff at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Former all-rounder Flintoff, a key figure in England’s 2005 Ashes-winning triumph, also coached the Northern Superchargers franchise in English domestic cricket’s Hundred competition.

With AFP inputs


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Xbox CEO’s new TES VI post gets fans theorizing full title

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Xbox CEO Asha Sharma recently sat through a TES VI “live playthrough” session, finding its scale “incredible”. Her cryptic X post about it, however, has the community focusing on something else: the full title. With eight asterisks after “The Elder Scrolls VI”, the post may or may not be a hint at what the second bit will be called.

Crucially, if the asterisks are indeed a hint of how many letters there are, it doesn’t fit “Hammerfell”, the most widely theorized title.


As community theorizes TES VI subtitle, Asha Sharma’s post also establishes big dev milestone

Long-time Elder Scrolls followers are currently reading into the fine print of the asterisks to deduce what the title could be. Since Hammerfell is out, the going theory that I personally find the coolest is TES VI: Sentinel, which would sort of fit the naming pattern of TES II: Daggerfall as a synecdoche to High Rock.

Other ideas being thrown around include the two-word options: High Rock, Skyrim II, Iliac Bay itself, or even Redguard (encore).

Live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls VI: ******** this morning. The scale and grandeur are incredible. The story is even greater.

Indeed, with the complete lack of any official information, these morsels are all we have to go by. The fact that it’s going to be south of Iliac Bay at all is speculation based on the only trailer all those years ago in E3 2018 (and some unverifiable leaks afterwards).

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Asha Sharma’s post today, too, is only another trail of breadcrumbs that may lead nowhere. For all we know, it’s just a random number of asterisks to classify the title. Or, perhaps, to reclaim some mystique lost with Bethesda’s sudden roadmap transparency.

The bigger redguard fish to fry in this tweet is the fact that a “live playthrough” of an internal build of TES VI was presented to the big boss. This is only the second-ever direct quote from an Xbox C-suite about watching some gameplay.

A few weeks ago, Xbox exec Matt Booty confirmed in a Variety interview that TES VI is “coming along well”, having seen the game in action up front. Today’s tweet is marginally more pointed, broaching the subject of scale.

Elder Scrolls has progressively become bigger from Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim. It’s most likely owing to the waning hardware constrictions with each era, but the enigmatic Elder Scrolls VI will doubtless be another step of this increment.

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Back to the more important topic, though: it’s a vertical slice in all likelihood, and the game is far from its final leg. It’s only been three years in production after all. Still, a direct X post from the Xbox CEO herself presents a big milestone.

If not indicative of its actual production stage, it’s at least a vote of confidence. With much restructuring and studio-cuts to narrow their portfolio, Xbox has recently put more money into accelerating the development of Fallout and Elder Scrolls projects.

One of Bethesda’s flagship titles, the game has more wind on its sails than past years, and we might even get to see a second (and a real) trailer this TGA. Meantime, all the wind we get is wild gusts of TES VI rumor floating on hopes and dreams.