MANILA, Philippines—San Mig Coffee, playing with what coach Tim Cone described as a lot of togetherness, dropped 32 points in the third quarter on Air21 and went on to rout the Express, 97-84, to stay in the hunt for a top two slot in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Marc Pingris scored all but two of his 12 points in that pivotal period, and the San Mig defense held the Express to just 18 points in that span to open up commanding leads on the way to rising to 4-2 overall.
That kept San Mig within striking distance of second-running sister team San Miguel Beer, with both clashing in a Petron Saturday Special game for what could go down as the battle for No. 2. The No. 2 team joins topnotcher Talk ‘N Text with a twice-to-beat privilege in the quarterfinals.
Talk ‘N Text continued tightening its hold of the top spot, stretching its unbeaten run to eight games with an 85-82 victory over Rain or Shine in the second game.
Meanwhile, the league’s board of governors will hand down a decision today on whether it will accept—and how many—expansion teams for the next season.
Kia Motors Philippines, Ever Bilena and NLEX are applying as new members. The meeting is set at noon at the league’s offices in Libis, Quezon City.
James Mays scored 23 points and had 15 rebounds while PJ Simon had 20 for the Mixers, who snapped a two-game slide and dropped the Express to the bottom half of the standings at 3-4.
“We played with a lot more togetherness and connection in the third quarter,” Cone said later. “We played together a lot compared to our last two games, and we also had the sense of urgency, something lacking in our last couple of games.”
The Express dragged San Mig into a nip-and-tuck game in the first half behind Wesley Witherspoon and Sean Anthony.
THE SCORES:
First Game
SAN MIG COFFEE 97—Mays 23, Simon 20, Pingris 12, Devance 11, Yap 9, Sangalang 8, Barroca 6, Cawaling 3, Melton 3, De Ocampo 2, Gaco 0, Mallari 0, Reavis 0.
AIR21 84—Witherspoon 27, Anthony 19, Yeo 11, Cardona 10, Villanueva 5, Borboran 4, Taulava 4, Burtscher 2, Camson 2, Ramos 0.
Quarters: 18-20, 44-45, 62-77, 94-87
Second Game
TALK ‘N TEXT 85—Canaleta 19, Williams 13, Seigle 12, Fonacier 11, Castro 8, De Ocampo 7, Carey 5, Alapag 5, Reyes 3, Howell 2, Reyes 0, Baclao 0.
RAIN OR SHINE 82—Chism 18, Belga 12, Lee 11, Tiu 8, Chan 7, Arana 6, Almazan 5, Norwood 5, Cruz 4, Rodriguez 4, Tang 2, Uyloan 0, Nuyles 0, Teng 0.
Quarters: 21-14, 36-37, 70-54, 85-82