San Mig rips Globalport in fight-marred game

After literally putting up a fight, San Mig Coffee is back in the groove in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Former two-time MVP James Yap fueled a jack-rabbit start as the Mixers took control early before ripping Globalport, 102-88, in a game that saw San Mig’s Marc Pingris and Batang Pier Kelly Nabong come to blows at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay.
Yap scored 11 of his 22 points in the first period and ushered the Mixers to commanding leads early before the game took a sour turn when Pingris of San Mig and Nabong of Globalport came to blows that cleared both benches early in the third period.
San Mig took leads of as large as 21 points late in the second period and coach Tim Cone described the effort of his Mixers as one of their finest this conference only for it to be stalled by the fight.
The Mixers improved to 2-3, the same slate now being held by the Batang Pier, who took a second straight loss.
“I always preach to my players not to fight,” Cone said later, blaming the fracas on game officials who let the incident get out of hand. “I felt that it was the fault of the referees. They did not call the first three or four times that it happened.
“Marqus (Blakely) and Marvin (Hayes) lay on the floor several times before that,” Cone continued. “At some point, the players are going to react.”
The melee happened at the 8:11 mark of the third and the Mixers comfortably ahead, 58-39, as Blakely and Hayes took each other down before being whistled for a double foul.
And just after both had gotten up, Joe Devance came out of nowhere and drilled Hayes with a cheap shot to the chest, knocking down the Globalport defender for the second time and igniting the fight.
Nabong then came to Hayes’ rescue and Pingris came from Nabong’s blind side and unleashed a right straight that grazed the Globalport center in the face.
Both got tangled up and exchanged blows, with Nabong clearly winning the scuffle by planting a knee to the left ribcage of Pingris as both benches emptied and tried to pacify the protagonists.
Cone himself got into the mix and embraced Nabong by the waist only to be taken down reminiscent of the incident that involved New York coach Jeff Van Gundy and Miami’s Alonzo Mourning.
“I feel that it is my job as a head coach to come in there and break up fights,” Cone said. “I don’t know if I looked stupid out there doing my job, but I had to do it.”
But Cone didn’t stop there.
“I might get in trouble (for saying this), but it is the fault of the referees,” he said.
Later in the night, crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra also rose to 2-3 after peeling away from Air21 in the third period for a 106-93 victory.
Dior Lowhorn scattered 35 points and had eight rebounds and LA Tenorio tossed in 18 that went with 14 assists and seven rebounds, quarterbacking the Ginebra offense to great effect.
The Express got 38 points from Zach Graham and 17 from KG Canaleta but still lost for the fourth straight time in a cellar-dwelling 1-5 card.
Reigning MVP Mark Caguioa scored 20 points for the Gin Kings, who also got twin digit outputs from Willie Wilson and Jay-Jay Helterbrand.
Ginebra coach Ato Agustin later said that they were scouting around for big men to address their problems in the middle after Japeth Aguilar joined Kerby Raymundo in the injured list two games ago.
Agustin bared that they could reactivate Eric Menk and at the same time admitted that Asi Taulava playing for Ginebra is a far-fetched idea with Meralco owning the rights to the 6-foot-9 Fil-Tongan.