Don Trollano submitted his best showing of the 2025 PBA Philippine Cup to date as San Miguel burst the bubble of Phoenix through a 111-92 romping to regain its winning ways, Sunday evening at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The veteran forward finished with 21 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals, asserting himself on offense early on as he sought redemption after going scoreless in their sorry loss to TNT last Sunday in Antipolo.
He made 15 in the first half, 10 of which came in the second chapter to help the Beermen wrest control of the game for good. This, after a tepid start that saw the perennial contenders trail by seven to their younger counterparts.
The 33-year-old product of Adamson had a hand in putting together the breakaway from a narrow 33-31 lead. He eventually dropped 34 points as a collective in the said period to head into the halftime intermission with a 64-50 advantage.
(C) PBA Images
Furthermore, that huge contribution allowed June Mar Fajardo to sit out the entire quarter, and SMB benefited greatly as the league’s only eight-time MVP came in fresh for the second half and helped out in their strong finish.
“They were well motivated to win because of that loss against TNT,” offered head coach Leo Austria as his team improved to 4-2 in the standings.
“There’s no other way for us but to win dahil if we lose, we will drop to no. 8. Now with this win, maybe we’ll be at no. 3 and still be on track for the Top Four,” he added as they now sit behind Magnolia (5-0) and NLEX (4-1).
CJ Perez top-scored for San Miguel with 26 points, five rebounds, and four assists, nailing back-to-back threes to end the match — and crush the Fuel Masters’ hopes after the latter had a mini rally and got to within 13.
Fajardo, despite playing for just three periods, still finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Marcio Lassiter chipped in 11 markers.
“The mindset is just to win,” said Trollano. “We can’t afford to lose back-to-back games kasi ‘yung standings eh dikit-dikit; ‘pag natalo eh babagsak kami.”
(C) PBA Images
Kai Ballungay, on the other hand, finished with 23 points to lead Phoenix, who couldn’t string together a win streak. The crew failed to follow up their huge win against the Tropang 5G — a 95-81 demolition in Montalban last May 2.
Kenneth Tuffin had 16 points, while Jason Perkins added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Fuel Masters, who absorbed their fourth loss in six games.
The Scores:
San Miguel 111– Perez 26, Trollano 21, Fajardo 20, Lassiter 11, Brondial 8, Tautuaa 7, Teng 6, Cruz 5, Ross 4, Calma 3, Teng 2, Cahilig 0, Rosales 0, Tiongson 0.
Phoenix 92 – Ballungay 23, Tuffin 16, Perkins 15, Tio 8, Daves 8, Manganti 5, Rivero 5, Camacho 4, Verano 4, Jazul 3, Garcia 1, Alejandro 0, Cullar 0, Soyud 0, Ular 0.
Quarterscores: 30-29, 64-50, 85-63, 111-92.
