THEY lost to a winless opponent last time but now San Miguel Beer beat an undefeated rival.
A week after falling to an ambush from Terrafirma, the Beermen bounced back strong and brought down erstwhile unblemished TNT, 83-67, in Wednesday's PBA Philippine Cup in Bacolor, Pampanga.
The Beermen came out of the gates firing and stormed to an early 18-2 lead behind the hot guns of Terrence Romeo and Marcio Lassiter.
Coach Leo Austria and his determined charges kept at it all the way through to complete their bounce back to the 104-110 overtime shocker to the Dyip last Wednesday.
SMB improved to 4-2, moving closer to the Top 3 teams TNT (6-1), Magnolia (6-2) and Meralco (5-2).
Sponsored content: "I think that loss (to Terrafirma) was a wakeup call," said Austria, whose charges led by as many as 27 points. "The players are motivated. Nag-uumapaw ang energy nila knowing this is a huge game and we wanted to bounce back."
SMB came into the marquee matchup at the Don Honorio Ventura State U Gym with more energy having been on week-long break. The Beermen's originally scheduled weekend assignment against Alaska was postponed due to the league's health and safety protocols.
"Going into the game, we were worried because one-week kaming hindi nakalaro and yung kalaban, they have the momentum from three wins (last week)," said Austria.
"Good thing, we kept on practicing para makuha yung gusto naming energy because we're going up against TNT, a very cohesive and very organized team. Buti na lang din, nagkaroon ng law ng averages sila," he also said.
There was an array of heroes for SMB led by Lassiter and Romeo, who rifled in 19 and 16, respectively.
Sponsored content: June Mar Fajardo hauled down 17 rebounds to go with his eight points while Mo Tautuaa and CJ Perez shot 13 apiece. Chris Ross, who achieved a milestone with his six steals hiked his career total to 901 and is now No. 6 in the league's all-time assists leaders list
Kib Montalbo (13) was the unlikely scoring leader for TNT, which struggled with its lowest score since a 63-77 setback to Petron in November 2013 in the elims of the 2013-14 season Philippine Cup.
The Scores:
San Miguel 83 - Lassiter 19, Romeo 16, Tautuaa 13, Perez 13, Santos 9, Fajardo 8, Ross 3, Zamar 2, Pessumal 0, Gamalinda 0.
TNT 67 - Montalbo 13, Heruela 10, Pogoy 10, Rosario 9, M. Williams 7, Alejandro 7, Erram 5, Marcelo 3, Mendoza 2, Castro 1, Exciminiano 0, Reyes 0, K. Williams 0.
Quarterscores: 24-10, 43-30, 64-44, 83-67.
