ANTIPOLO CITY. — Reigning eight-time MVP June Mar Fajardo of defending champion San Miguel Beer casually hauled down a rebound off a missed three-point try by Blackwater big man Christian David from the right corner Sunday night.
Fajardo’s veteran teammate Chris Ross playfully teased the 6-foot-10 prized center by trying to steal the ball with 3:24 to go. Didn’t matter.
With Fajardo showing the way, the Beermen dumped the Bossing 115-102 for their second straight win in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Ynares Center here.
The board was Fajardo’s 21st of his 22 overall that he laced with 27 points and six assists.
Aside from Fajardo’s stellar outing, comebacking SMB coach Leo Austria heaped praises on import Torren Jones who notched 29 markers, on top of 13 boards.
“Iyong import namin, kaunting panahon pa lang ang na-i-igugol niya sa ensayo namin. He’s trying to adapt to the system that we have. Slowly, nakikita niya iyong game plan namin,” Austria said. “I’m so happy with him kasi nakikita mo naman iyong ine-expect namin from him to be a hard worker.
“I’m not so happy dahil iyong turnovers namin madami and we struggled a little bit in the first quarter but kahit gaanio kasama ang laro, kapag panalo ka, a win is a win. What more if it’s more than 10 points?” he added.
CJ Perez added 15 points, six rebounds and three dimes while Jericho Cruz and Don Trollano also had 14 and 11, respectively as the Beermen scored a fitting follow to a 106-88 drubbing of the Terrafirma Dyip last Friday and rose to 3-2.
Blackwater failed to do an encore to a 114-98 victory over Meralco last Thursday and fell to 1-4 in the mid-season tourney.
SMB took a 55-48 lead at the break and still enjoyed an 85-77 edge going into the fourth quarter.
A Fajardo free throw gave the Beermen their biggest lead 113-98 with 1:29 remaining.
Reinforcement George King carried the fight for the Bossing with a game-high 40 points and grabbed six caroms while Sedrick Barefield and David got 17 and 10, respectively.
