The San Miguel Beermen are truly enjoying themselves. Years of familiarity have created a fun environment for the Beermen, even having Zumba sessions off the court. And their fondness for playing together is showing on the court, as the San Miguel Beermen blasted the Star Hotshots, 105-97, Sunday night at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
This is San Miguel’s third win in three games this conference, while the Star Hotshots have dropped their second game in the row to fall to 4-2.
“Well, alam namin na from the start that this will be a tough game for us dahil galing sa talo ang Star against Ginebra,” San Miguel head coach Leo Austria said.
The Beermen made it look easy, leading by as much as 19 points with 1:17 left in the third frame. And they had fun pounding the Hotshots, as an 8-0 rally saw an in-your-face jam by Charles Rhodes against Chris Javier and was capped by an off-the-board alley-oop attempt by Chris Ross to Rhodes that was saved by the passer.
Rhodes led the lambasting with 29 points on 11-for-14 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds.
“I’m happy to see our import, nag-compete siya at namayani ang pride nila dahil they know Mitchell is a terrific import who will dunk every time na bibigyan siya ng open shot,” Austria shared.
Ross added 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting with four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos added 16 and 13 points respectively.
The on-court show that the Beermen were trying to put on almost bit them in the back late in the game, though.
After Tony Mitchell fouling out with 2:49 left, Lassiter tried threw an ill-advised alley-oop pass to June Mar Fajardo that led to a turnover. This led to a 5-0 spurt by Star capped by a Paul Lee triple with 1:01 remaining that sliced the lead to just four points. A miss though by Lee led to Ross blowing past Jiovani Jalalon with 22.6 ticks left to seal the win.
“Malaki naman ang tiwala ko sa mga players, they know how to win. During the break nagpahinga sila and some of the players ay nagpunta sa gym,” Austria said.
Mitchell was frustrated all night by the Beermen, scoring 22 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and swatting away three shots but fouled out after 39 mintues of game time.
“We wanted Mitchell to get into foul trouble dahil si Mitchell nagpapahirap sa amin dahil you cannot have a good layup every time he’s inside the shaded area,” Austria furthered. “I’m happy na naintindihan ng import namin dahil he kept on attacking Mitchell.”
Already without Marc Pingris and Justin Melton, Aldrech Ramos suffered a fractured nose after an accidental elbow by Rhodes with 1:18 left in the opening quarter.
Ian Sangalang had to play 37 minutes because of this and was able to put up 18 points and six rebounds. Lee added 16 markers.
San Miguel will next face the Mahindra Floodbuster on Wednesday, April 19, at the Cuneta Astrodome. Star, on the other hand, look to snap out of their funk on Saturday, April 22, when they face the Blackwater Elite at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The Scores:
San Miguel (103) – Rhodes 29, Ross 19, Lassiter 16, Santos 13, Fajardo 10, Heruela 8, Cabagnot 6, Espinas 2, Semerad 0, De Ocampo 0.
Star (97) – Mitchell 22, Sangalang 18, Lee 16, Maliksi 11, Barroca 10, Jalalon 9, Simon 7, Javier 2, Reavis 2, Ramos 0.
Quarterscores: 27-26, 48-42, 77-65, 103-97
