Bay Area Dragons’ Kobey Lam leads his team to victory anew. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines–Bay Area overcame a shaky start and then played splendidly the rest of the way to carve out a 114-95 victory over San Miguel Beer on Friday night, to take commanding control of their best-of-five PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinal series.
Kobey Lam starred anew for the Dragons, this time scattering 25 points at PhilSports Arena in Pasig City to bring the visitors to the cusp of a PBA Finals berth.
“It’s just the fact that we’re in the playoffs. It’s exciting so I gotta bring the energy,” said the Toronto-raised guard, who was Bay Area’s hero in the series opener.
Import Andrew Nicholson had 34 points and 16 rebounds. Glen Yang and Zhu Songwei each finished with 13 points while Hayden Blankley and Liu Chuanxing added double digit scores for Bay Area which could wrap the series up this Sunday.
“We got an opportunity to do something special, and we just want to make sure we don’t leave any rock unturned right now,” added head coach Brian Goorjian who helped the Dragons spoil the return of San Miguel’s seasoned coach Leo Austria.
San Miguel got the goods from cornerstone June Mar Fajardo, who had 35 points that went with 10 boards. Marcio Lassiter added 15 points, Devon Scott 14 and CJ Perez 13 as the Beermen played catch up all night long.
Bay Area, the finest offense and second-best rated defense in the league, enjoyed leads as big as 21 points.