PBA: San Mig survives late scare against Petron

The Petron Blaze Boosters cut an 18-point deficit to just three, only to be out-powered by James Yap and company in the endgame, as the San Mig Coffee Mixers posted a win against their sister team, 90-84, Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. Petron’s starting center, 2012 first overall pick June Mar Fajardo, made a big impact in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 points, punctuated by an alley-oop off an Alex Cabagnot pass and a two handed put-back dunk over Yancy de Ocampo. With 4:10 left in the game, Fajardo grabbed a huge defensive rebound and threw a baseball pass to Chris Lutz for the lay-up to cut the San Mig lead to 3, 78-75. However, Jonas Villanueva, James Yap, and PJ Simon were determined to keep Petron at bay, quelling the Petron rally and gaining an 87-80 lead with 1:32 left in the game. However, Arwind Santos made a basket, followed by Cabagnot forcing two turnovers on Jonas Villanueva. Yeo sank a put-back off a miss by Santos to cut the lead to just three yet again, 87-84. Off the inbounds, Petron’s defense forced the Coffee Mixers to pass the ball to Rafi Reavis. The Boosters gambled to stop the clock, but Reavis made it a two possession ball game with a free throw. With no timeouts left, Petron went to Jay Washington at the right wing for a three, but his attempt was blocked by Yancy De Ocampo, as San Mig sent a forward pass to Yap for a wide open layup to seal the deal. After the game, San Mig head coach Tim Cone expressed his relief at winning early against the Boosters: “I’m on the same bandwagon as Coach Yeng [Guiao, head coach of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters],” said Cone.  “I also think that Petron is going to get much better. We’re glad we got over them now and that we won’t face them again.” But the multi-titled mentor also said that they too, could improve a lot more. “[Marc] Ping [Pingris] is out with a sprain, Joe [Devance] is still trying to get his athleticism back, and we’re hoping that JC [Intal] will join us in the next week or so to get Wesley [Gonzales] some help on defense,” said Cone. After two games, the San Mig Coffee Mixers are looking a lot better than they did last year. Cone credits this mostly to ball movement. “We ran basic, basic triangle before. We relied on defense and we got what we can from offense,” he said. “They understand the idea of ball movement. When your two best players are moving the ball, it gets infectious.” The Coffee Mixer’s ball movement was reflected in the stat sheets in their last two games. “We had 21 assists this game and we had 27 the last game. I think we only passed 20 assists five or six times last season. We want to have more than 20 assists per game,” said Cone. THe 6'10" Fajardo showed that he is a force to be reckoned with, totaling 16 points, 13 rebounds, three steals, and a block. But it was all for naught as the hole the Boosters dug themselves into was too deep to crawl out of. Santos led the Boosters in scoring as he dropped 18 points, with Lutz and Alex Mallari adding 13 each. Be that as it may, Petron sorely missed the scoring from their point guards as Cabagnot only scored three points while Denok Miranda failed to score. - RAF/DVM/AMD, GMA News