A depleted San Miguel Beer side found no problem disposing Blackwater, 115-78, to stretch its winning run in the PBA Philippine Cup on Sunday night at the Philsports Arena.
CJ Perez, June Mar Fajardo, and Chris Ross sparked a second quarter breakaway by the Beermen, who sat on a 52-39 lead at the break after just ahead by two at the end of the first period.
READ Sore eyes keeps 3 SMB players, 2 officials out of Blackwater game
Perez finished with 20 points and Fajardo added a double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds for San Miguel, which won for the third straight game for a 6-2 record.
San Miguel played minus key players Juami Tiongson, Mario Lassiter, and Jerong Teng due to sore eyes.
The absence of the three and Blackwater nearly pulling off the rug from under Barangay Ginebra last Friday made coach Leo Austria wary of the hard-fighting Bossing.
"That gave us a lot of concern," said the San Miguel Beer mentor. "But I'm happy with the way the players responded. They wanted to win because you don't know the situation right now who will get into the Top Four. And that is our target."
The Top 4 teams after the eliminations will enjoy a twice-to-beat edge in the playoffs.
JM Calma came off the bench in the second half to finish with 16 points on an efficient 7-of-9 shooting, Don Trollano with 15, and Jericho Cruz had 15 and eight assists for San Miguel.
Ross finished with 11 and instigated that first half breakaway along with Fajardo and Perez where the Beermen outscored the Bossing, 28-17.
They led by as much as 113-76.
Blackwater suffered a fifth straight loss for a 1-7 record.
The Bossing couldn't pull off the same effort they showed against Ginebra two nights earlier when they took the Kings to the distance, only to be denied by a jumper from Japeth Aguilar from the corner for a 101-99 win.
Christian David led Blackwater with 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists, RK Ilagan with 14 and BJ Andrade 10.
After scoring a game-high 32 points in the loss against Ginebra, star rookie Sedric Barefield was only good for five points this time, held to 2-of-14 shooting and forced to five turnovers.
The scores:
San Miguel (115) - Perez 20, Fajardo 17, Calma 16, Trollano 15, Cruz 13, Ross 11, Tautuaa 9, Cahilig 8, Rosales 6, Brondial 0.
Blackwater (78) - David 15, Ilagan 14, Andrade 10, Caperal 8, Mallilin 6, Tratter 5, Barefield 5, Chua 4, Mitchell 3, Guinto 2, Escoto 2, Ayonayon 2, Casio 0.
Quarterscores: 24-22; 52-39; 86-57; 115-78.
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