What sophomore jinx?

June Mar Fajardo, the Petron Blaze man-mountain, is showing none of that in the early goings of the PBA Philippine Cup, again churning out a game befitting his 6-foot-9 frame to lead the Boosters to a 91-78 ripping of San Mig Coffee at the Araneta Coliseum Wednesday night.

The narrow loser to Alaska’s Calvin Abueva for the Rookie of the Year award last season, Fajardo has been the single most dominant force in the first two weeks of the tournament, finishing with 21 points and 25 rebounds in leading the Boosters to their third straight win and the solo elimination round lead.

It took Petron one full quarter to rev up before pulling away in the second period that left the Mixers eating dust the rest of the way. San Mig has now lost its first three games, the second time this has happened in the last four conferences.

Arwind Santos, the reigning Most Valuable Player, and Chris Lutz also finished with double-doubles for coach Gee Abanilla, who admitted later on that he is surprised that he has gone 3-0 considering the schedule that they had.

“With the lack of preparation and injuries that we have, I think we are very lucky to be in the situation where we are now,” Abanilla said, referring to the injuries to all-star guard Alex Cabagnot, Ronald Tubid, Chris Ross and Yousef Taha.

Fajardo’s 20-20 game came less than two months after he shot 20 points and grabbed a career-high 26 rebounds also against San Mig in Game 4 of their Governors’ Cup title series.

And the way he is going, it looks like the oldest standing individual record in the league – the 29 rebounds by the late Marcelo Simbulan of defunct 7-Up, established in the first year of the league in 1975, is in jeopardy this season.

“June Mar just played a monster game,” Abanilla said.

Santos scattered 17 points and had 14 rebounds and Lutz drilled in 14 markers that went with a career-high 13 assists.

So efficient were the Boosters – who had a 55-41 edge off the boards and 24-12 advantage in assists – that even the nine turnovers of Lutz – also his career-worst – didn’t matter to the team.

Marcio Lassiter was the fourth man in twin digits for the Boosters with 15.

San Mig continued to struggle with Peter June Simon and Joe Devance sitting out a third straight game. Compounding matters for the Mixers was the fact that James Yap, the former two-time MVP and leader of the team, floundered with a five-point effort in 23 minutes.

Yap, who took eight total attempts and made just one, played his third straight sub-par game, and coach Tim Cone must get someone to step up with Simon injured.

Mark Barroca paced the Mixers with 20 points, and Mark Pingris had 16 that went with nine boards. And had it not been for rookie JR Cawaling, who shot 15, San Mig would have been buried in an even deeper hole.

The Petron victory completed a night of convincing wins after Meralco tore Air21 apart, 112-79, in the first game.

John Wilson came off the bench to shoot a career-high 26 points built around a 6-of-6 clip beyond the arc and four others scored in twin digits for the Bolts, who rose to 1-2 while dealing the Express a third straight lopsided defeat.

Wilson actually scored a point-a-minute and his clip from beyond the arc matched the all-time record of most triples made in a game without a miss. Glenn Capacio, the retired Purefoods star, pulled off the feat twice in his career.

Dondon Hontiveros of Alaska, Simon Atkins, Ren-Ren Ritualo of Air21 and Vic Pablo are the others in that distinguished list.

Air21 looked a lethargic site for the third straight game, with the 12 points of Ritualo and the 10 of Joseph Yeo leading the squad.

So dominant were the Bolts that they scored 70 points in the second and third periods – just nine short of the entire Air21 total – while Wilson and Sunday Salvacion tossed in a combined 22 in the second quarter, one more than what the Express scored in the same stretch.

“We needed this one badly to keep our confidence high,” Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio said. “We came so close to winning against Rain or Shine. Maybe it just wasn’t our time (to win) then.”