PBA: Petron spoils Mbenga's debut with win over Barako

(Updated 6:25pm) The Petron Blaze Boosters spoiled the PBA debut of former LA Laker DJ Mbenga with an 88-77 victory over Barako Bull Energy Cola, Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The win also meant that Petron formalized their entry to the quarterfinals. With a 7-5 win-loss card, the Blaze Boosters can still make it to the top-two, with the twice-to-beat incentive that comes along with one of those spots. At 4-8, on the other hand, Barako Bull still has a shot at making it into the postseason. They will need wins versus the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the GlobalPort BatangPier, all while hoping the Air21 Express drop at least one of their remaining games. Petron started by dominating their foes on offense, and even though they had a hard time keeping Barako Bull away all throughout the game, the Blaze Boosters still did enough to beat the Energy Cola convincingly. The Blaze Boosters broke the the game wide open with an Alex Cabagnot three at the 4:26 mark to put the Boosters ahead, 82-66. Cabagnot followed this up with a floater less than a minute later for an 84-68 lead. A jumper by Henry Sims then stretched their lead to 17 with a little over two minutes remaining to put the game away for the Boosters. Alex Cabagnot led Petron with 20 points, four rebounds, and seven assists. "We just had that sense of urgency so we were more aggressive," the Petron point guard said after the game The Boosters also spoiled the PBA debut of two-time NBA champion DJ Mbenga. "He hasn't played in like five months so we wanted to know what his condition was," Cabagnot pointed out. "He's still an NBA vet, he still has two rings, but I'm happy we pulled it through." Petron started like house on fire as they built a 12-0 lead in the opening minutes of the game. A Marcio Lassiter jumper at the 4:59 mark of the first then made it 16-8 lead in favor of the Blaze Boosters. However, they failed to shake off a pesky Barako Bull squad that kept on chipping away at their big first quarter advantage. A baseline jumper from Sean Anthony with only 13 seconds left in the first sliced Petron's lead down to five, 22-17. Barako Bull finally got a taste of the lead in the second quarter, but a free throw from Henry Sims at the 2:14 mark knotted the game at 36. On Petron's next possession, Chris Lutz got away with what looked like a dribbling violation to give the Boosters a 38-36 lead. Danny Seigle had the chance to tie the game for Barako Bull with eight seconds left in the first half, but he missed both of his free throws. Sims tried to duplicate Petron's hot first quarter start as he quickly converted on a three-point play, but Allein Maliksi quickly replied with a jumper on the other side. Petron stepped on the gas pedal on offense as they established some distance between themselves and Barako Bull, but the underdogs went on an 8-0 run to bridge the third and fourth quarters to inch closer. Sims led his side with 23 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots, while Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos came off the bench for 14 and 11 markers, respectively. Mbenga tallied 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting, alone with 12 rebounds in his PBA debut. Allein Maliksi added 13 markers, while Sean Anthony and Mick Pennisi scored 11 apiece and combined for 16 boards. Despite making more mistakes, Petron outscored their foes 27-10 in the turnover points category. Barako however got to the line 23 times more, 37-to-14, except they could only convert on 59.5 percent of their attempts. - RAF/AMD, GMA News

 

 

The scores:

 

PETRON 88 - Sims 23, Cabagnot 20, Lassiter 14, Santos 11, Fajardo 6, Lutz 6, Miranda 6, Washington 2, Sison 0, Faundo 0, Lanete 0, Pena 0.

 

BARAKO 77 - Mbenga 14, Maliksi 13, Anthony 11, Pennisi 11, Monfort 8, Seigle 8, Urbiztondo 5, Macapagal 3, Duncil 2, Intal 2, Kramer 0.

 

Quarters: 22-17, 40-38, 67-55, 88-77