MANILA – San Miguel Beermen bucked a poor start to score a 129-117 victory over the struggling Columbian Dyip in the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
June Mar Fajardo led the defending champion (3-3) with 37 points and 18 rebounds. Renaldo Balkman added 27 points and 18 rebounds while Alex Cabagnot had triple-double 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
A game prior, Blackwater Elite unloaded a 6-0 spurt late in the match – capped by a game-winning dunk by Henry Walker – to chalk up its first win in the conference at the expense of Magnolia Hotshots 86-84.
Down by as much as 11 points in the first quarter, Beermen banked on conversions from Fajardo, Balkman, Arwind Santos, and Marcio Lassiter to surge to a 69-55 lead at the half.
Dyip countered with a strong start in the third period and managed to snatch the lead 85-83 but Beermen rode on conversions by Cabagnot and Fajardo to regain edge 97-89.
Beermen continued to pull away in the fourth to build its largest lead in the match 113-96 on inside baskets by Fajardo. Dyip made its last push to come to within 9 points but baskets from Balkman and Santos sealed the win for San Miguel.
John Bailey Fields III, Rashawn McCarthy and Reden Celda finished with 19 points apiece while Dylan Ababou added 14 markers for Dyip (3-5), which suffered its third straight loss.
In the other game, Elite trailed 80-84 with under a minute left until Michael Digregorio scored on a layup to cut the deficit 82-84. An inside hit by Elite’s John Paul Erram tied the scores 84-all.
After a missed triple by Hotshots’ Rome dela Rosa, Elite snatched the advantage when Walker escaped the defense of Hotshots import Curtis Kelly for a dunk with three seconds left.
Erram led Elite (1-7) with double-double 19 points and 15 rebounds. Allein Maliksi added 16 markers while Digregorio and Walker had 11 points each. Hotshots dropped to 3-3./PN
