Blakely carries Mixers past Express in OT

Marqus Blakely of San Mig (light) vs Dominic Sutton of Air21 (dark). PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines—San Mig Coffee rode heavily on Marqus Blakely to slip past Air21, 113-109, in the 2014 PBA Governors’ Cup Monday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Blakely, whom Cone calls “Mr. Everything,” did it all with 36 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and seven blocks as the Mixers gained solo second place at 5-2, just half a game behind league-leader Talk ‘N Text.

“In the big scheme of things, this was a huge win for us. We had that twelve-point lead and then we let it slip away and Joseph (Yeo) makes that great shot at the end of regulation. We were lucky to escape with this win tonight,” San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone told reporters after his team blew an 82-69 lead early in the fourth quarter before salvaging a squeaker in OT.

“We feel like we’re not where we need to be. We’re not playing the same defense we’ve been playing. We’re kind of out of whack a little but to be able to come out and win a game like this when you’re not at your best is important especially down the stretch of this conference because we got two games left,” added Cone.

The Mixers’ defense may have not been at its best but Blakely was. And he did enough to help his team survive the Express.

“I felt we went to him too much tonight. I think we put too much of a load on him. We were posting him up almost every time. He had three or four spectacular blocks when he had five fouls,” said Cone.

But Cone, like any other coach, would’ve loved a total team effort rather than having to see his team lean on just a one-man wrecking crew.

“He was wonderful but we can’t use him as our crutch. We gotta carry our own load at this point,” Cone said.

“Guys like PJ (Simon) and James (Yap), Ping (Pingris) and Joe (Devance) and Mark (Barroca), they have to carry their own load. They can’t just rely on Marqus all the time. But you know, that’s what Marqus is all about. He’s Mr. Everything and he does everything for us but it’s difficult for us if we get into that habit which is putting too much pressure on him to do everything,” Cone added.

PJ Simon had 17 points while Marc Pingris added 14 but both combined for just seven points in the fourth quarter and extra session while Blakely scored 20 points alone in that 17-minute span.

Dominique Sutton had 22 points and 13 rebounds while Asi Taulava notched another double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds in a game-high 48 minutes of action for Air21, which dropped to 4-3.

Joseph Yeo, who added 20 points, sent the game into overtime, 105-all, with a bailout 3-pointer, double clutching it near the left corner with Simon draped all over him with 1.9 ticks left in regulation.

Yeo, though, turned the ball over with the Express down by just three, 109-112, that led to Blakely’s 22nd made free throw out of the 31, seven more attempts than the whole Air21 team.
Eliud Poligrates added 17 points on three-of-four shooting from long range for Air21. He nailed his first three treys, with his third one knotting the game at 90-all with under five minutes remaining. Yeo followed it up 22 seconds later with his own triple that gave the Express their first lead, 93-90, since trailing by double-digits.

The Mixers went on a quick 6-0 run in the final 1:19 of regulation before Yeo’s tough triple forged extra session.