MANILA – The absence of June Mar Fajardo was hardly felt by team San Miguel Beermen (SMB) as it opened its 2020 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup campaign with a 94-78 victory over the Magnolia Hotshots at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.
Moala Tautuaa, who took the usual role of Fajardo, finished the game by dropping 20 points and 11 rebounds and led the way for the five- time defending champion SMB.
Terrence Romeo chipped in 19 markers, Arwind Santos had a double-double output of 18 points and 15 boards, while beyond-the-arc specialist Marcio Lassiter and Alex Cabagnot finished with 17 and 10 markers, respectively.
SMB started the match with a 10-3 offensive blast that was built mostly on Santos with seven. However, Magnolia got a lift from newcomer Jackson Corpuz to even the score at 18-all after the first quarter.
Clinging to a one-point edge at 29-28 in the second period, SMB went on a huge rally behind Romeo, Tautuaa, Lassiter and Chris Ross to finish with a 45-33 halftime edge.
The trio of Lassiter, Ross and Cabagnot connived in the start of the third period. SMB established a huge edge at 61-39. Magnolia then answered with a huge scoring rally to come within 54-61, but the Beermen had a quick response via Romeo to bring the digits to 69-56.
It was time to say “game over” for SMB in the last quarter by way of outside hits from Lassiter, Santos and Romeo, along with inside baskets from Tautuaa to stretch the lead to 91-73.
Paul Lee finished the opener with 19 points, while Corpuz and Ian Sangalang contributed 16 markers apiece for the back-to-back Philippine Cup runner-up Magnolia in the losing effort./PN
