UTSUNOMIYA - June Mar Fajardo's 21-second stint and the firepower of Allen Durham and his Ryukyu Golden Kings team proved too much for San Miguel Beer to overcome.
With Fajardo forced out by a knee injury from a collision with Kings import Jack Cooley early in the first, the Beermen absorbed a 96-68 blowout at the hands of Ryukyu in their East Asia Super League Champions Week opener at the Nikkan Arena here.
The Golden Kings unleashed a 25-11 barrage in the second period to surge past the Beermen, 49-28, never keeping their foot off the pedal all the way to the finish.
Cooley banged in 20 markers with 16 rebounds as Imamura fired four triples in matching the former's output.
Ryuichi Kishimoto added 14 spiked by four treys and three-time PBA Best Import Durham banged in 13 with 16 boards to complement the victors' scoring leaders.
Sponsored content:
Carl Tamayo, Gilas Pilipinas' young gun, debuted for the Golden Kings with four points and two rebounds in eight minutes of action against SMB.
Cam Clark produced a game-high 25 for the reigning PBA Philippine Cup champs as CJ Perez delivered the only other double-figure score with 12.
"We started flat in the first half. We weren't sharing the ball, we weren't defending well and we took to ourselves instead of playing as a team," rued SMB coach Jorge Gallent.
Without Fajardo, the Beermen badly lost the battle of the boards, 33-52.
"June Mar is a big presence inside and he's a good rebounder, that's the main thing. We were just outrebounded and that hurt us. When they were getting the offensive boards, I think they made four or five three-point shots from those," said Gallent.
Sponsored content:
SMB aims for a bounceback performance Saturday against Anyang KGC over in Okinawa. (OL)
