After a sluggish start, San Miguel Beer finally rediscovered its deadly form to book a 111-93 win over Rain or Shine in the Philippine Basketball Association Season 50 Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Ynares Center-Montalban in Rizal Province.
Marcio Lassiter displayed his shooting prowess while June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez knocked down some big shots to lead the Beermen to their first victory after suffering back-to-back losses to TNT Tropang 5G and NLEX in the early stretch of the season-opening tournament.
Lassiter caught fire, dropping all of his 18 points laced with three three-pointers in the decisive second-half rally while Fajardo dropped 17 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Beermen, who played with a sense of urgency from start to finish to avoid falling to a deep 0-3 hole.
Perez, who ignited a first-half rally, topscored with 23 points, six rebounds and two steals.
“Maybe it was a wake-up call. It just kinda woke me up,” said Lassiter, who started to play well after suffering a hit on his nose in the first half of this rugged encounter.
“You know, they had a lot of emphasis on June Mar. He was attracting so much attention so I was able to set up my shots and drained some three-pointers. We started with two losses so there was really a sense of urgency for us to win. We came out desperate for this victory.”
San Miguel head coach Leo Austria agrees, adding that their sluggish start could be attributed to their late preparation after making a championship run in the Philippine Cup of Season 49.
“We’re not like the other teams who have started training two months before the tournament,” Austria said.
“In our case, we started late because of our championship run. After winning the title, I gave them some time to relax and enjoy our championship.”
Adrian Nocum fired 17 points and five rebounds while Jhonard Clarito and Gian Mamuyac chipped in 16 markers apiece for Rain or Shine, who failed to draw significant numbers from Caelan Tiongson, their hero in their big 96-95 overtime victory over Meralco last week.
Tiongson was held to only nine points, but posted 13 rebounds while serving as the only legitimate defender to the 6-foot-10 Fajardo.
True enough, the Beermen started hot right in the first half.
With Perez and Juami Tiogson catching fire, the Beermen started hot, knocking down 17 of their 46 field goal attempts for a sizzling 37 percent while drawing 37 points from the bench players.
On the other hand, the Elasto Painters nailed only 11 of 44 shots for 25 percent field goal shooting with 15 points from the non-starters.
Perez even ignited a late second-half rally capped by a long three-pointer before halftime to give San Miguel its biggest lead of the first half at 12 points, 46-34.
Perez entered the half with 11 points while Tiongson and JM Calma had six markers, respectively, boosting the Beermen’s confidence as they marched into the third period.
Then, Lassiter took over, knocking down a three-pointer that gave the Beermen a 20-point lead, 63-43, with 6:14 left in the third period.
The Elasto Painters managed to cut the deficit to nine, 65-74, entering the fourth quarter, but Fajardo terrorized the paint in the final five-minute mark to regain a 20-point lead, 96-76, that sealed their victory.