Mario West of Meralco (light) vs Marc Pingris and Marqus Blakely of San Mig Coffee (dark). NUKI SABIO/PBA
MANILA, Philippines — San Mig Coffee bucked the early ouster of Marc Pingris to win, 108-90, over Meralco in the 2014 PBA Governors’ Cup Tuesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Pingris earned an automatic ejection after getting slapped with a flagrant foul penalty 2 for hitting JR Sena at the 3:15 mark of the second quarter but it didn’t take long before the Mixers adjusted with his absence.
PJ Simon had an efficient 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field in just 19 minutes while high-energy import Marqus Blakely worked tirelessly and had 16 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks for San Mig Coffee, which improved to 2-1 and kept Meralco winless in four games.
“A little bit of a struggle for us. It was A little bit of a frustrating first half we didn’t play with a lot of the rhythm,” said San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone.
It didn’t appear that way though, at least in the second half.
The Bolts, behind their returning import Mario West, kept it close before the Mixers broke loose in the third quarter and just shifted into high gear in the final frame, where they worked their offense seamlessly.
San Mig Coffee went on an 18-6 run capped by an Allein Maliksi 3-pointer to lead, 94-75, with 5:14 left. Gary David answered with a triple for Meralco before the Mixers closed the Bolts out with another mini surge highlighted by a Blakely coast-to-coast that made it, 100-78, under four minutes left.
Meralco’s defense wasn’t in check allowing San Mig Coffee to shoot 56% and so did its offense with most of their offensive possession coming down to forced and low-percentage shots with the shot clock winding down.
West, who replaced the erratic Terrence Williams, flirted with a triple-double with 31 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists but he cooled off after a 22-point first half.
“We had a good run in the second half and I thought Rafi (Reavis) filled in the shoes of Ping admirably, got some baskets and defended Mario West pretty well in the second half,” praised Cone.
“We showed our bounce back ability coming back from that San Miguel loss. And I think that was one of the keys to a really good team,” Cone also said.
Mark Barroca contributed 15 points and seven assists while James Yap had 13 points through three quarters. Pingris scored 10 points before getting thrown out.
“It was a good win because James (Yap) got the specific fourth quarter out which is always so important to give him the extra time, whenever we can sit James out in the fourth quarter and win a game going away then I feel like we did our job well that night.”
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