SAN MIG COFFEE FORGES 1-1 DEADLOCK
SAN Mig Coffee did a good job of taking Petron Blaze out of its rhythm Sunday and reaped a big reward as a result.
Disrupting the Boosters’ game in the times that mattered most the Mixers etched a 100-93 victory to tie their PBA Governors Cup best-of-seven title series presented by PLDT Telpad at one game apiece at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Best Import awardee Marqus Blakely shrugged off his struggles from the stripes with 23 points, 16 rebounds and six assists, while the locals did their ample share, unlike in an 84-100 loss in the series opener last Friday.
More important, San Mig was more business-like on the defensive end and used that to spark and fuel its offense to the delight of coach Tim Cone.
“I thought we executed well, spread the floor really well, we didn’t let them take over the paint. We were able to spread them out a little bit tonight,” was how Cone described the general strategy.
“Defensively, we collapsed on people. Marqus was an active helper, Joe (Devance) did a tremendous job against June Mar (Fajardo), (Marc) Ping (PIngris) broke down (Elijah) Millsap,” added Cone.
“I think they got frustrated tonight and that’s all we needed to win. We’ll see in Game 3 if we can repeat our performance.”
Millsap actually notched 31 points and 10 rebounds, but he fouled out with still 3:29 to go, followed a little later on and one after the other by Fajardo and Best Player of the Conference awardee Arwind Santos.
That is just one of the things that gnaw at Petron coach Gee Abanilla.
“We just couldn’t get to the line even though we were aggressive enough, we were attacking,” said Abanilla, referring to the fact the Mixers attempted 55 charities, 24 more than his Boosters.
“When you have your best three players fouling out, it changes the complexion of our game,” added Abanilla. “I’m just hopeful we could adjust to the calls in this series and we shouldn’t be affected by them.”
It didn’t help any that Petron did go on a fouling spree in the stretch to stop the clock and maybe work its way up from a 79-89 deficit.
That backfired, however, as San Mig scored nine of its last 11 points from the stripe, enough to quash the Petron threat through triples by Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot and Ronald Tubid, the last putting the Boosters within 93-96, only 8.6 seconds to go.
James Yap, limited to just eight points in Game 1, had 17, Devance added 15 and PJ Simon’s 16 were laced by five free throws in the last 45 seconds that also helped keep Petron at bay.
Blakely actually went 7-for-19 from the free throw line but he canned two in the last 67 seconds that made it a 93-85 count.
The biggest disappointment for Petron was Santos, who finished with only four points and one rebound, the latter his lowest in that department for at least the last two seasons.
In all, the Boosters committed 22 errors, which the Mixers translated into 19 points. The latter also had a 51-39 advantage off the boards.
There was another Cone ploy that worked as his charges got off to a hot start that resulted in a 28-16 lead. Although Petron fought back, San Mig kept its poise and held on, even posting the game’s biggest difference at 74-60, late in the third quarter.
“We wanted to dictate the tempo,” explained Cone. “They (Boosters) don’t fall behind very often, so we wanted to see how they would react if they’re playing from behind.” (NC)
The scores:
San Mig Coffee 100 – Blakely 23, Yap 17, Simon 16, Devance 15, Pingris 11, Barroca 9, Mallari 8, Reavis 1, De Ocampo 0.
Petron 93 – Millsap 31, Cabagnot 22, Fajardo 16, Lassiter 10, Tubid 5, Santos 4, Miranda 3, Kramer 2, Lutz 0.
Quarters: 30-23, 49-44, 74-62, 100-93
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