Lassiter leads undermanned Petron Blaze rally past Barako Bull

Marcio Lassiter of Petron (dark) vs JC Intal and Mark Isip of Barako Bull (light). Nuki Sabio/PBA

MANILA, Philippines — Marcio Lassiter scored 26 points as injury-depleted Petron Blaze pushed past its toughest challenge yet in a 96-90 win over Barako Bull to keep its record perfect in the 2014 PLDT MyDSL Philippine Cup Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Boosters came into the game with a 12-point winning margin in their past three games but this time, they were the ones who needed to come back from a double-digit deficit to win.

Petron Blaze, which had just nine players in the game with key players Alex Cabagnot, Chris Ross, Chris Lutz, Yousef Taha and Ronald Tubid nursing injuries, finally got a taste of the lead, 75-73, at the 8:35 mark of the fourth quarter on a left corner triple by Lassiter after trailing by as much as 13 in the second period.

It marked the first time the Boosters grabbed the advantage and they never trailed again.

“We’re very, very happy about this win. Coming into this game we had a lot of injured players and one of them is Chris Lutz also. We came into the game with just eight players and one rookie,” said Petron coach Gee Abanilla after his team maintained its hold of the top spot with a 4-0 record.

“But the standard of expectation shouldn’t be changed. A lot of guys stepped up,” Abanilla added.

Arwind Santos had 19 points, including a layup off a pass by Jojo Duncil that pushed the Boosters lead back to five, 95-90, with 35.5 seconds remaining, while Junemar Fajardo scored 11 points, grabbed 22 rebounds and had five blocks.

Paolo Hubalde and Chico Lanete had 15 and 10 points, respectively, as they filled the void left by Cabagnot and Ross at the point guard position.

“We came in flat but we managed to keep on hanging on,” said Abanilla.

The Energy, who have now lost two straight games after winning their first two, had eight players scoring at least seven points led by JC Intal’s 11 points while Mark Macapagal, Willie Miller and Ronjay Buenafe chipped in 10 each.

Barako Bull managed to stay within striking distance in the fourth quarter despite the early ejection of Dorian Peña and with Mick Pennisi saddled by foul trouble.

A three-pointer by Buenafe got his team to within three, 90-93, with 44.7 ticks left but the Energy would go on to miss their last three attempts from the field in the waning seconds of the game.