POWERED by the stellar outing of Raul Soyud, nine-man Phoenix Super LPG nipped Meralco, 100-93, to make it two in a row in the PBA On Tour Sunday night at Ynares Sports Arena.
In his best performance since joining Phoenix last January, Soyud banged in 25 points on a near-perfect 11-of-12 field goal shooting to go with 13 rebounds as he led the charge for the undermanned Fuel Masters in the intense, down-to-the-wire duel presented by Arena Plus and sponsored by Bingo Plus.
Soyud's clutch putback off a miss by Sean Manganti broke an 88-all standoff and triggered a 12-5 closing barrage that sealed the deal for a followup to Phoenix's opening 106-101 upset of San Miguel Beer.
"Siyam lang kami sa game na ito kaya sabi ni coach (Jamike Jarin) magtulungan kami ano man ang mangyari sa laro," he said.
That's exactly what the Fuel Masters did.
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RR Garcia produced 15 with five assists, Manganti had 12 and 7, young big man Larry Muyang delivered a second straight double-double with his 13-12 and Tyler Tio shot 10.
The rest of the healthy players - Daniel Atienza (9), Jayjay Alejandro (7), Chris Lalata (6), and RJ Jazul (3) - contributed as well for Jarin. Simon Camacho, the 10th man in uniform, saw action for a mere 1.9 second after sustaining an injury in the previous game against SMB.
Soyud himself was forced to sit out the last 8.9 ticks of the game after getting slapped with a flagrant foul penalty-one for fighting stance in a heated confrontation with Meralco's Raymar Jose, who was assessed with the same call.
The two made up and even had a friendly banter in the post-game handshake.
"Wala na iyun, intense lang talaga ng laro," said Soyud.
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Anjo Caram rifled in 22 while Bong Quinto scored 10 with 11 dimes for Meralco, which slid to 1-1. The Bolts missed Allein Maliksi, the hero of their 97-89 opening win over NorthPort, who is nursing a sore heel and joined Chris Newsome, Chris Banchero and Aaron Black in sick bay. (OL)
The Scores:
PHOENIX 100 - Soyud 25, Garcia 15, Muyang 13, Manganti 12, Tio 10, Atienza 9, Alejandro 7, Lalata 6, Jazul 3, Camacho 0.
MERALCO 93 - Caram 24, Hodge 12, Torres 11, Quinto 10, Jose 9, Pasaol 7, Rios 6, Pascual 4, Almazan 4, Manday 3, Johnson 3
QUARTERS: 21-19, 51-43, 73-72, 100-93.
