Bowles stars with 35 as San Mig Coffee forges rubber match vs Meralco

Denzel Bowles slams PBA IMAGE / Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines — Denzel Bowles unleashed 23 points in the second half and San Mig Coffee kept its semifinals bid kicking with a 100-92 trumph over Meralco Sunday in the 2013 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Mixers took the lead, for good, on a basket by Marc Pingris with 7:21 left in the third quarter then just systematically fended of the Bolts from the on.

PJ Simon nailed a triple before Bowles completed an and-one play to give San Mig Coffee an 88-78 lead with over eight minutes left to play.

Though it was more than enough time for Meralco to stage a comeback, the Mixers had Simon and Bowles to make the buckets to frustrate the Bolts.

“We need to take more business-like approach in this series. I didn’t think we did that in game one and we did that better in game 2,” said head coach Tim Cone.

Bowles finished with a total of 35 points and 14 rebounds in the game but the locals also took charge as Alex Mallari posted a career-high 16 points with Pingris and Simon combining for 23.

Eric Dawson finished with 23 points along with 23 rebounds, eight assists and four steals but his monster numbers were not enough to lift Meralco.

The Bolts played catch up all game, finally experiencing the driver’s seat on a triple by Mark Cardona with a little over three minutes gone by in the third period — but it was short lived.

In the payoff period, the Bolts couldn’t knock down their shots, making a fight back impossible, as they went 7-of-20 from the field, making just one of their seven three-point attempts.