Once again showing that it can bring down a powerhouse opponent, Petron made the more critical stops late in the game and came away with a 73-69 victory over B-Meg Wednesday night, spoiling Tim Cone’s debut as the Llamados’ head coach at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The Boosters, the ones who denied Talk ‘N Text of a rare Grand Slam by winning the 2010-11 Governors’ Cup in seven games, didn’t have an ideal start, falling behind by 16-6. But they did finish with a flourish against a team that’s still trying to perfect a Triangle Offense system Cone has been known to worship.
“We just took advantage since B-Meg is still in a learning process over Cone’s system,” said Petron coach Ato Agustin. “Second, it was our defense that spelled the difference in this game.” Of course, Petron knows all about defense. It was the aspect of the game that propelled the Boosters to a shocking upset over the Tropang Texters in the last conference despite a depleted lineup.
Petron still was without Jay Washington and Rabeh Al-Hussaini.
Agustin said he has no idea when Washington can play, but is somehow relieved to realize that Al-Hussaini, the Rookie of the Year last season, can suit up by January.
Even then, Petron still had players who can step up and deliver.
Alex Cabagnot, who has this penchant for saving Petron when games are on the line, stood at the forefront of the franchise’s end-game brilliance. He scored seven of the team’s last nine points – a crucial three-pointer and four straight free throws in the final 58.8 seconds, and rookie Chris Lutz had a key follow-up three-point play in the last 2:25 that proved to be the go-ahead markers.
Lutz eventually wound up with 19 points – 10 coming in the third quarter – on 9-of-9 shooting from the free-throw line and 5-of-9 from the field and Cabagnot had 17 points. Arwind Santos, who struggled from the field on 5-of-17 shooting, made up for it with 19 rebounds.
It was, indeed, a struggle for the Llamados to execute the Triangle to perfection. Cone is with B-Meg for only a month, and the players certainly had a hard time carrying it out when needed the most.
James Yap, B-Meg’s go-to guy, was well defended when he launched a pair of three-point shots – a perfect example of how robust Petron’s defense was in holding B-Meg scoreless in the final three minutes of the game.
Yap ended just shooting 4-of-17 from the floor to finish with 10 points behind PJ Simon, who scored 21 for B-Meg.
Petron thus claimed a share of the lead with Rain or Shine and Powerade, which earlier appeared to be coasting to a lopsided victory over Shopinas.com but struggled before carving out a 98-87 triumph.
Gary David scored 31 points to pace the Tigers, who built the biggest lead of the game at 40-16. But Powerade failed to sustain a demoralizing attack, allowed the Clickers to fight back to within three points before hanging tough enough down the stretch.
But while Powerade did pull off a win, it wasn’t impressive enough.
“I told them that Shopinas.com is a new team and if we’re going to struggle against Shopinas.com we’re definitely going to struggle with the other teams,” said Tigers’ coach Bo Perasol.
Overall, it was defense that obviously was lacking for the Tigers.
“I’m happy that we won but I’m definitely not satisfied with the way we played defense,” Perasol said. “We really need to work hard on cohesion. We could have limited them (Clickers) more.” Powerade’s other marquee player acquired from the August Draft – Marcio Lassiter – had a remarkable debut despite working out for the Tigers only twice. The former Smart-Gilas off-guard scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and collected three assists and three steals in 30 minutes of action.
“It was good to be out there. I’m still getting used to the offense and was just trying to play 110 percent on the court and helping the team out,” Lassiter said.
Celino Cruz added 15 points, including a key three-point shot late in the game, and Josh Vanlandingham contributed 14 points for Powerade, a franchise that has not went beyond the wild card stage the past three seasons.
Ren-Ritualo led Shopinas.com with 19 points, and rookie James Sena had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Jojo Duncil added 11 points.
On paper, the Clickers clearly don’t stand a chance against the Tigers. But they did give Powerade a scare even if a huge deficit was standing in the way.
After dropping behind by as large as 24 points, the Clickers applied the press and nearly succeeded in overcoming the gap when they cut it down to within 63-60 on a triple from Khazim Mirza with 5:55 to go in the third period.
But Powerade held on, erected a 93-81 lead in the fourth quarter and, after the Clickers came to within eight points, was fortunate that Cruz’s shotclock-beating three-pointer found nothing but net to practically seal the outcome at 96-85 with 2:57 left to play.
