MANILA, Philippines —Unceasingly finding holes in the enemy’s defense in the second half, San Mig Coffee blew Meralco off the court, 108-90, Tuesday night to return to the upper half of the PBA Governors’ Cup standings at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Draining shots almost with impunity, the Mixers were just too much for the Bolts to handle even with old reliable in Mario West back in Meralco uniform.
Five players, led by Peter June Simon’s 22 points, scored in twin digits for the Mixers, who rebounded mightily from a painful 90-92 loss to sister squad San Miguel Beer just two nights before.
“We showed our bounce-back ability; that was a painful loss to San Miguel Beer,” said San Mig coach Tim Cone.
“It was a little frustrating in the first half. We didn’t have a lot of rhythm out there.” San Mig, now 2-1, kept Meralco winless in four games, leaving the Bolts no other choice but to try and sweep their remaining five games in order to have a shot at the quarterfinal round.
The Mixers lost Marc Pingris with just over three minutes left in the second quarter when he was whistled for a flagrant foul-2 for punching James Sena in the right ribcage—the distraction that Cone said got them out of the flow for a time.
Pingris, the anchor of the Mixers’ defense, reacted when Sena gave him a very hard pick, countering with a punch. He left the game after contributing 10 points and two rebounds.
“I always tell the players that the first sign of fatigue and tiredness is being pikon (poor sport),” Cone said. “When they focused and didn’t get caught in their little battles, we were a good team.”
San Mig had control right from the start, building double-digit leads in the second period. Marqus Blakely fired 16 points that went with 18 rebounds.
West, who came in as a replacement for the ineffective Terrence Williams, shot 31 points and had 11 boards.
The scores:
First Game
SAN MIG SUPER COFFEE 108—Simon 22, Blakely 16, Barroca 15, Yap 13, Pingris 10, Maliksi 9, Sangalang 8, Reavis 6, Gaco 4, Mallari 3, Devance 2, Holstein 0, Melton 0.
MERALCO 90—West 31, Hodge 21, Caram 8, Wilson 7, Sena 6, David 6, Hugnatan 6, Salvacion 3, Bringas 2, Ildefonso 0, Timberlake 0, Dillinger 0.
Quarters: 30-23, 52-46, 76-69, 108-90