Depleted NorthPort whips debuting San Miguel Beer

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Shorthanded NorthPort utterly dominated San Miguel Beer, 121-88, to bounce back from a narrow loss and gain a share of the lead in the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup standings Wednesday night at Araneta Coliseum.

Batang Pier drew a brilliant scoring performance from rookie Robert Bolick, who had 25 points and seven rebounds in the match.

“Perhaps they’re still on vacation mode,” said NorthPort coach Pido Jarencio, whose squad improved to 4-1 alongside upstart Blackwater.

“But we need wins. This conference is short. After 11 games, we’ll learn about our position [to compete],” he added.

“We just caught San Miguel on an off night,” Jarencio said, trying to play down what the stat sheet showed: a balanced scoring effort.

Import Prince Ibeh had 18 points while five more from NorthPort’s local crew tossed in 10 or more in the scoring effort to fill the void left by three of its players, including its foremost weapon in Stanley Pringle.

The Beermen turned to old reliable Charles Rhodes and its centerpiece June Mar Fajardo for scoring, with the American reinforcement tallying 27 points, while the reigning Most Valuable Player 19.

Arwind Santos and Von Pessumal had 11 each to round out the double-digit performers but their contribution came in a bit late in the losing effort that saw Batang Pier break away by as many as 38 points.

San Miguel, like fellow Philippine Cup finalist Magnolia, absorbed a loss in their conference debut.

The Batang Pier face the Hotshots next, while the Beermen goes up against the 3-1 TNT in the back-to-back games at Ynares Antipolo this weekend.

The scores:

NorthPort 121 – Bolick 25, Ibeh 18, Lanete 16, Grey 16, Tautuaa 11, Elorde 11, Anthony 10, Taha 9, Flores 3, Gabayni 2.

San Miguel 88 – Rhodes 27, Fajardo 19, Santos 11, Pessumal 11, Standhardinger 6, Cabagnot 5, Zamar 4, Vigil 3, Lassiter 2, Rosser 0, Mamaril 0.

Quarerscores: 25-25, 54-41, 91-63, 121-88