MANILA, (PNA) – Petron Blaze bounced back strong and dominated San Mig Coffee, 90-68, in Game Three on Wednesday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven finals of the PBA Governor’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Despite playing without top playmaker Alex Cabagnot, the Blaze Boosters came out scorching both in offense and defense as they pulled away in the second quarter and never looked back to avenge their 93-100 loss in Game 2 last Sunday.
The defense of the Boosters limited the Coffee Mixers to just 30 points in the first half and never allowed San Mig to get closer below 20-point margin from 55-30 halftime lead down to the final buzzer.
Import Paul Millsap teamed up with rookie big man Jomar Fajardo, sparking second quarter onslaught and finished with 28 and 19 points, respectively.
”I think we made a couple of adjustments. We’re very happy how the team responded after the loss. The mark of a good team is how we bounce back after a loss,” coach Gee Abanilla said.
Mark Lassiter and Arwind Santos delivered 17 and 10 points each.
The Coffee Mixers hope to regroup and pick up their shattered offense in Game Four set on Friday at the Mall of Asia.
”Everything went wrong. We come in with 50 percent focus, we gonna lose it. We move on and focus on next one,” San Mig coach Tim Cone said.
Import Marcus Blakely and James Yap were the only two players who scored in double-digit for San Mig.
The scores:
Petron 90 – Millsap 28, Fajardo 19, Lassiter 13, Santos 10, Hubalde 9, Miranda 6, Tubid 5, Deutchman 0, Lutz 0, Kramer 0, Isip 0, Ildefonso 0.
San Mig Coffee 68 – Blakely 17, Yap 10, Mallari 9, Devance 9, Barroca 7, Simon 6, Pingris 5, Reavis 3, Alvarez 1, Gaco 1, Ponferrada 0, Acuna 0, Najorda 0, De Ocampo 0.
Quarters: 28-20, 55-30, 77-52, 90-68.