McCullough, San Miguel beat NLEX to pump life into flatlining playoff bid

San Miguel Beer held off hard-fighting NLEX, 109-105, to kickstart a desperation bid to save its PBA Commissioner’s Cup campaign and keep a shot at a Triple Crown alive Friday night at Mall of Arena in Pasay.

Chris McCullough, the Beermen’s latest addition to their bevy cast of weapons, ignited a 16-0 run in the third period—within it a barrage of triples to go with Marcio Lassiter’s —to erect a massive cushion going into the final frame.

The New York native finished with 47 points and 10 rebounds for San Miguel, just five markers short of matching the most for an import’s debut set by Eugene Phelps, then of Phoenix.

“Obviously we’re not happy with the win because we let (NLEX) recover,” coach Leo Austria, whose Beermen averted a meltdown after leading by as many as 29 in the contest.

“But I have to give credit to some of my players—especially to my import because he was out there to win. He’s the key why we were able to salvage a win, something that could give us a chance to get to the second round,” he added.

Christian Standhardinger had 12 points while Alex Cabagnot and Marcio Lassiter each tossed 11 as the Beermen improved to 3-5 in the midseason conference.

NLEX leaned on reinforcement Olu Ashaulu’s 31 points and 15 rebounds—most coming in a spirited run in the stretch—to go with Juami Tiongson’s 14 and two more double-digit performances off the bench in the Road Warriors’ penultimate stand in the conference.

San Miguel resumes its bid of a sweep of its remaining games against  Phoenix on July 10 at the Big Dome.

Now with a 2-8 card, the Road Warriors hope to tab one more victory before ending their unproductive campaign in the midseason conference when they go up against the Fuel Masters on July 12 at Cuneta Astrodome.