TWICE in five nights, Eastern defeated San Miguel Beer.
The Hong Kong-based squad trumped the Beermen 71-62 in their EASL tiff in Hong Kong Wednesday and repeated in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup clash, pulling off a 99-91 win in overtime last Sunday night at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
Glen Yang and Hayden Blankley struck hard in the extra time and lifted the HKG dribblers to a sixth win against two losses, snapping the Beermen’s three-game winning skein and spoiling the PBA debut of new SMB import Jabbari Narcis.
Earlier, Rain or Shine fended off breakthrough-hunting Terrafirma 124-112 to make it four in a row.
Adrian Nocum fired nine in spearheading 26-17 closing salvo that enabled the Elasto Painters to take control for good in a roller-coaster affair that featured 18 lead changes and eight deadlocks.Yang and Blankley combined for all of Eastern’s 12 points in OT, with a triple by the former in the last 43 seconds sealing the deal and, in the process, handing the Beermen a first loss under returning coach Leo Austria.
From early double-digit deficits, the Beermen worked their way into the game and forged OT at 87 only to lose steam, crumble and drop to 3-3.
Yang and Blankley were at the firing end as Eastern pounded San Miguel numerous errors and miscues in the crunch.
Yang finished with 26 points and Blankley 15 as Chris McLaughlin (18), Kobey Lam (13) and Siu Wan Chan (10) had their moments in their repeat conquest of the Beermen.
Narcis, the Beermen’s second import replacement subbing for Torren Jones, led all scorers with 28 points as June Mar Fajardo fired 23 and JC Perez and Marcio Lassiter contributed 18 and 13, respectively.
However, the Beermen misfired and committed costly turnovers, allowing Eastern to strike at them a second time.
Last Wednesday, Eastern played with a single import in McLaughlin and leaned on Bay Area veterans Lam, Glenn Yang and Blankley who combined for 37 points as they topped the Beermen with two imports in Jones and Quincy Miller.
The loss closed the EASL post-elims play door on the Beermen.
In foiling the fiercest bid for a maiden win by the Dyip (0-7), the charges of coach YengGuiao moved up to solo second at 4-1.
“We had a strong endgame. It was the finish, really,” said Guiao, whose team even faced a 12-point deficit early on.
“Hindi namin ma-stop ‘yung post plays nila so we tried to defend that with our import (Deon Thompson). We got the stops we needed at a crucial time so ‘yunangsusi, and we got into our late game transition.”
