Petron blasts San Mig Coffee for a 2-1 lead in PBA finals

Elijah Millsap of Petron (light) vs Marc Pingris of San Mig Coffee (dark) NUKI SABIO / PBA IMAGE

MANILA, Philippines — Petron shattered the 1-1 tie with a 90-68 dismantling of San Mig Coffee Wednesday night in the 2013 PBA Governors’ Cup finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Boosters strode to leads of more than 20 as early in the first half and sustained the attack to get the lead anew, 2-1, in the best-of-seven finals series.

Elijah Millsap had a lot to do with Petron’s huge bounce back triumph, torching San Mig Coffee with five triples for 28 points along with eight boards, three assists and two steals.

“Mark of a good team is how you bounce back after a loss,” said head coach Gee Abanilla. “Millsap really played well, but it’s a total team effort.”

After the intermission, the Boosters still came out relentless as ever and pushed the lead to as big as 30, 77-47, on a five point swing from Millsap.

Jun Mar Fajardo also had a solid night with 19 points, nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block while two others added double-digit points which made Alex Cabagnot’s loss hardly noticeable.

Cabagnot is sidelined with a foot injury and was in the venue in crutches but Abanilla is hopeful that his guard would return soon.

Game four is set on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena with Petron looking to extend its edge against the vengeful Mixers.

While the points came so easy for Petron, San Mig Coffee had to bleed for buckets and only had 10 in the second quarter when the game started heading into a rout.

The Mixers only had two triples then just came away with nine second chance markers while allowing the Boosters to score twice as much.

Marqus Blakely led San Mig Coffee with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while James Yap had 10 markers while both had zero conversions from downtown.