MANILA – San Miguel Beermen erased a double-digit deficit in the second half to score an 89-80 victory over Meralco Bolts in the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup at the AUF Sports Arena and Cultural Center in Pampanga last night.
Down 54-67 late in the third period, the Beermen slowly clawed their way back behind hits from Moala Tautuaa, Arwind Santos, Chris Ross, and Von Pessumal to take a 74-71 lead.
It was then the turn of Alex Cabagnot to take over for the defending Philippine Cup champions as he scored six of the Beermen’s next eight points to build an 83-75 advantage.
The Bolts made their last push as they came to as close as 80-83 on five straight points from Allein Maliksi and Aaron Black, but triples from Cabagnot and Ross increased Beermen’s lead to 89-82 with under a minute left.
Tautuaa finished the match with 23 points while Santos chipped in double-double 17 points and 11 rebounds as the Beermen won its third consecutive match and improved to a 4-2 win-loss record.
Cabagnot contributed 13 markers, with nine coming in the final quarter while Ross and Marcio Lassiter ended up with 12 apiece for San Miguel.
Baser Amer tallied 17 points while Negrense Reynel Hugnatan and Chris Newsome added 15 and 14 markers respectively for the Bolts, which dropped to a 3-3 slate.
The other PBA game scheduled for Wednesday between the Blackwater Elite and Magnolia Hotshots was postponed to a later date.
In an advisory, the league said it is still waiting for the approval of Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases with regard to the Elite’s basketball return.
Late last week, a player from the Elite was suspected to have coronavirus disease 2019, but later turned out negative for the virus via antigen and swab tests.
BOX SCORE: SAN MIGUEL 89 – Tautuaa 23, Santos 17, Cabagnot 13, Lassiter 12, Ross 12, Gamalinda 4, Pessumal 4, Zamar 2, Escoto 2, Mamaril 0.
MERALCO 82 – Amer 17, Hugnatan 15, Newsome 14, Hodge 7, Black 7, Quinto 6, Almazan 5, Maliksi 5, Jamito 4, Pinto 2, Jackson 0, Faundo 0. Quarterscores: 19-20, 40-40, 60-69, 89-82./PN
