Rising Phoenix — Fully-charged Fuel Masters bag QF bonus

A well-rested Phoenix Super LPG squad showed up and booked an emphatic 93-83 triumph over Meralco to secure the twice-to-beat incentive in the quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner's Cup yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Playing their first game of the year, the Fuel Masters hardly showed some rust in securing the victory that gave them their first playoff incentive since 2020.

They now have an 8-2 card and moved to the solo second spot behind idle Magnolia entering their last game of the eliminations against TNT Tropang Giga on Sunday.

But Phoenix head coach Jamike Jarin is not thinking of the playoffs, knowing that they need to take care of business against the Tropang Giga, who desperately need a win to catch the last bus to the playoffs.

"This is an important win for us, but we're not yet thinking about the playoffs as we have TNT next," Jarin said.

"So, we'll prepare against TNT. But we're still in a blind right now because we still don't know who will be matched up to us in the playoffs. We're not looking beyond TNT."

After being sidelined by injury, Jason Perkins returned, delivering 22 points while import Johnathan Williams and Tyler Tio chipped in significant numbers for the Fuel Masters, who did a brilliant job stopping Meralco import Shonn Miller.

Williams came away with a double-double showing of 19 points and 15 rebounds while Tio stepped up and produced 15 markers.

RJ Jazul was also impressive, adding 13 markers with three three-pointers that gave Perkins and Williams a bigger room to operate.

Phoenix threw its defensive blanket on Meralco and neutralized the energetic Miller, who was held down to only 19 points and nine rebounds while battling foul trouble.

Miller picked up his sixth and last foul during a rebound play against Javee Mocon with only 41 seconds left and the outcome was already decided.

It wasn't just Miller who has been grounded offensively for Meralco as even its big guns just couldn't hit their perimeter shots with Allein Maliksi going scoreless and missing all his five attempts in 12 minutes of action.

Chris Banchero and Chris Newsome both ended up in double figures, tallying 15 and 13 points, respectively, but even their stats line would show how they struggled offensively against the airtight defense of the Fuel Masters.

Banchero made 5-of-13 shots, while Newsome struggled even more, making only three of 13 attempts.

Overall, Meralco, as a team, could only hit 39 percent from the field (32-of-81) while Phoenix had a steady shooting all game long, making 54 percent (36-of-66).

In fact, as early as the first period, the Fuel Masters already went berserk, shooting 63 percent and posting an early 31-19 lead entering the second period.