MANILA – NLEX Road Warriors weathered a flat start to score a 114-102 triumph over San Miguel Beermen at the start of the 2021 PBA Governors’ Cup last night at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.
Reinforcement Kevin “K.J.” McDaniels tallied 27 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two steals, while Celedonio Trollano and Kevin Alas chipped in 12 markers apiece for the Road Warriors.
Philip Paniamogan and Ilonggo Jericho Cruz contributed 11 and 10 markers, respectively. JR Quinahan also made his presence felt with 10 points, with eight coming in the fourth quarter.
Down 28-39 early in the second quarter, the Road Warriors leaned on consecutive hits from McDaniels, Paniamogan and Anthony Semerad to tie the score at 49-all before taking a 52-49 halftime edge on a Trollano triple.
NLEX continued its run in the third behind triples by Paniamogan and Kris Rosales and inside hits from McdDniels and Marion Magat for a 77-64. But the Beermen responded with a run to trim the deficit to 88-84.
The Road Warriors, however, pulled away anew with back-to-back triples by Quinahan and consecutive hits from Trollano and Cruz as the lead reached its largest at 110-91 on a McDaniels triple.
Brandon Brown led the Beermen with double-double 36 points and 13 rebounds, June Mar Fajardo added 20 markers and 11 boards, while Vic Manuel impressed in his SMB debut with 17 points.
In the first game, Robbie Herndon came up with a clutch basket as the Alaska Aces kicked off the season-ending conference with an 87-85 escape over NorthPort Batang Pier.
Holding to an 11-point edge early in the fourth quarter, the Batang Pier went on a huge 10-1 scoring blast behind Arwind Santos and Gregory Slaughter to take an 85-84 lead with 39 seconds left.
Herndon regained the advantage for the Aces at 86-85 with a turnaround hit over Santos followed by a split free throw by Jeron Teng to widen the lead to 87-85 before seeing Robert Bolick miss his last three-point try for NorthPort.
Reinforcement Oluseyi Ashaolu led the Aces with double-double 20 points and 14 rebounds to go with three steals, Teng contributed 19 markers, while Herndon finished with 13 points./PN
