SAN Miguel Beer continues to make new coach Jorge Gallent look good with another runaway victory, this time at the expense of Blackwater, yesterday.
With Jericho Cruz showing the way, the Beermen overpowered the Bossing 105-86 for their second straight win in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
Cruz shone with a game-high 22 points on top of three rebounds and three assists, while import Cameron Clark barely missed a double-double with 20 markers and nine boards, to go with two dimes.
June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, and Marcio Lassiter also did their part as the Beermen scored a big follow up to their 114-93 whipping of Phoenix four days ago.
Fajardo notched 17 points, 16 caroms, and four dimes while Perez and Lassiter had 14 and 13 markers, respectively.
Blackwater, coming off a 108-105 decision over the Fuel Masters last Friday, fell to 1-2.
Despite their fast start, however, Gallent wants his charges to continue learning.
“We just have to learn. We just have to play smarter. In the first half, we were running and then suddenly we stopped. We just gotta learn, we just gotta watch the films and see what’s really happening there,” Gallent said. “As I always say, if you give other teams a chance to come back, they will take advantage of it.
“Their (Bossing) players are playing well. They’re defending well. That’s why I think our offense is going up also because of their defense. Our motto is we just have to bring our defensive side to go to our offense. It’s our defense that is triggering our offense. So, if it stays like that, we’re fine,” he added.
A Clark free throw gave the Beermen their biggest lead at 63-33 with 52.0 seconds to go in the second quarter before SMB took a 63-35 spread at the halfway mark.
RK Ilagan pulled the Bossing to within 66-79 with a three-pointer with 1:40 remaining in the third canto but the Beermen held their ground and enjoyed an 83-68 edge heading into the payoff period.
Reinforcement Shawn Glover paced Blackwater with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and two feeds, while Joshua Torralba added 11 markers. Ilagan had 10 points for the Bossing.
