PBA: Beermen defuse Bolts; Express tame Tigers

Good to the last drop. San Miguel Beer, the basketball team, is now becoming the toast of the PBA Philippine Cup. The Beermen continued to assert their mastery over their counterparts, adding the Meralco Bolts to their growing list of victims, 86-77, Wednesday night at the Araneta Coliseum. Four players led by Jay Washington finished in double figures for the Beermen, who showed their might from start to finish for an easy win against the short-handed Bolts. The Bolts missed the services of Mac Cardona, who rested his injured foot. Without the team’s go-to-guy, Meralco became much more of a predictable team that relied solely on defense. But the loaded Beermen proved to be too much against the Bolts. Washington led the Beermen with 20 points, followed by Arwind Santos with 19. Joseph Yeo and Alex Cabagnot contributed 11 apiece and the rest of the squad helped hand coach Ato Agustin his fifth straight win in the tournament. Agustin, the NCAA champion coach of San Sebastian, stayed perfect in his early PBA coaching career while the Beermen grabbed the solo lead with a 6-1 mark. But another Beerman achieved a milestone a day after All Soul’s Day. Olsen Racela, who turned a year older during All Saint’s Day, became only the sixth player in PBA history to play at the age of 40, joining the elite list that includes the unsinkable Robert Jaworski, four-time PBA MVP Ramon Fernandez, two-time MVP Abet Guidaben, Terry Saldaña, and Yoyoy Vilamin. In the first game, Air21 turned to Ronjay Buenafe to outlast Powerade, 102-95. Buenafe fired a conference-high 28 points, 11 of them in the final period when Air21 made a killer blast. He scored five crucial points in the final minute to complete the Express’ come-from-behind win over the Tigers. With the game tied at 95-all with over a minute left to play, Buenafe calmly connected on a go-ahead floater in transition to put the Express back on the driver’s seat. The talented spitfire scored a dagger triple with 34.9 seconds left to push the Express’ lead to five, 100-95, and take the fight out of Powerade. ‘’Sabi ni coach, lagyan daw namin ng energy yung game namin, offensively and defensively. So we made the adjustment in the second half,’’ said Buenafe, who scored 21 points or more in four of his last five games. Thiele, Daa switch teams Meanwhile, undrafted rookie Hans Thiele, who blossomed into an effective contributor for Barako Bull, was traded to the Meralco Bolts in exchange for bruising forward Dennis Daa. The swap is expected to be submitted to the PBA Commissioner’s Office. Daa is playing his last game as a Bolt in their team’s game against the Beermen. "We want to build up on youth and athleticism. Judging from our previous games, we are relatively slower than the competition in the post position," said Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio. "For rebounds, despite our height, we are languishing at the cellar in rebounding. With Thiele, we will have a natural rebounder in our roster," added Gregorio. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV