SAN Miguel overcame a sluggish start to survive hard-fighting Globalport, 115-112, and bounce back in the PBA Governors Cup on a rainy Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Import Wendell McKines and Arwind Santos teamed up for the Beermen with 35 and 30 points, and came up big in the third quarter when San Miguel finally put on the switch to turn the game around.
The duo each had 13 points during the period when San Miguel outscored Globalport, 39-24.
That was enough to erase a 12-point halftime deficit as the Beermen surge ahead, 84-81, and took control for good.
Santos added eight rebounds and was 7 of 9 from three-point range as he stepped up in place of the injured June Mar Fajardo.
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Still bothered by a strained right calf, the 6-foot-11 Fajardo was sparingly used by coach Leo Austria and played for only seven minutes to finish with four points.
But the Beermen got a lot of help from others such as Alex Cabagnot, who fired 27 points (4 of 8 from three-point range), and Marcio Lassiter with 10, to help the team improved its record to 3-1 and recovered from a 104-98 loss to Star prior to their three-week break.
“Arwind is really practicing very well the past four days because alam niya June Mar will not play that long,” said Austria after the game.
“Hindi kami talaga nag-gamble kay June Mar dahil alam namin this is a long season for him.”
Globalport suffered a third loss in five games despite having three players finishing 20 points or more.
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Terrence Romeo showed the way with 26 points, import Murphey Holloway had 25 points and 23 rebounds, while Stanley Pringle added 24 for the Batang Pier, who controlled the game three-fourths of the way until the Beermen came through with that huge scoring output in the third period.
Yet the Batang Pier managed to stay until late in the match and was actually down by just 114-112 with 9.6 seconds on a split free throw by Pringle.
