June 26, 2019

Magnolia deals San Miguel an embarrassing loss, 118-82

Streaking Magnolia Pambansang Manok roared on and rampaged past a flat San Miguel Beer side, 118-82, to stay right behind the top two in the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday night.

Now as fluid as in their hot run in their runner-up finish in the Philippine Cup, the Hotshots blew by the Beermen who were a shade of the SMB team that beat Magnolia for the all-Filipino crown.

Sharp from afar and in running transition plays, the Hotshots put the outcome beyond recall just through the first three quarters.

It's a virtual no contest as Magnolia stretched its streak to four games and improved its card to 4-2.

Struggling badly, the Beermen were in the thick of things just in the opening quarter. They were woeful in suffering a fourth loss against two wins in the midseason tourney.

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Magnolia carried a 52-38 lead into the halftime break then stepped up harder at the resumption play, erecting a 32-point bulge, 77-45, in the third.

Magnolia coach Chito Victolero said it's about scoring some measure of revenge against San Miguel.

"Coming from that Game Seven loss last conference, ginamit talaga namin na motivation. I challenged the guys sana makabawi tayo kahit elims game lang," said Victolero.

"Yun, they played with extra motivation, extra energy. Kung mayroong 101 percent, yun na yon, especially on defense," Victolero added. "We talked about San Miguel's offense. At naging offense versus defense uli ang laban. And I think nagawa namin ang gusto naming gawin sa depensa."

The Hotshots controlled all the SMB key players, including June Mar Fajardo whom they held to five points on a 1-of-4 field clip and 3-of-4 free throws.

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Offensively, the James Farr and his local teams came through with a spread-out numbers, with five of them finishing in double figures.

Farr came up with 19 points and 18 boards.

"Medyo pumapayat na, at medyo mas kundisyon na," said Victolero of their import.

Jio Jalalon flirted with a triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds while Mark Barroca fired 17 markers and nearly finished with a double-double with nine rebounds.

Paul Lee contributed 14 points while Ian Sangalang added 10.(SB)

The scores:

Magnolia 118 - Farr 19, Barroca 17, Jalalon 16, Lee 14, Sangalang 10, Dela Rosa 8, Ramos 7, Pingris 6, Brondial 6, Melton 5, Gamalinda 4, Herndon 4, Abundo 2, Pascual 0.

San Miguel 82 - Rhodes 20, Standhardinger 16, Lassiter 11, Cabagnot 6, Pessumal 6, Tubid 5, Fajardo 5, Nabong 4, Lanete 3, Ross 3, Vigil 2, Santos 1, Rosser 0, Zamar 0.

Quarterscores: 24-17, 52-38, 85-56, 118-82