MANILA: San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria is faced with a problem that seems as legit as any.

Playing without his two MVPs, the shorthanded Beermen went on to bamboozle powerhouse Star with ease, 117-98, making Austria wonder how much of the chemistry would be disrupted once June Mar Fajardo and Arwind Santos return.

“I hope their return doesn’t disrupt the team,” Austria said with a smile after the Beermen claimed a piece of second place in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao. “They (rest of the team) showed that they can play without them (Fajardo and Santos).”

Facing the hottest team in the conference in the Hotshots, the Beermen went about business as usual despite manpower woes, breaking the game wide open in the third period with Tyler Wilkerson and Marcio Lassiter leading them to their fifth win in seven games.

That put San Miguel in a tie with idle Alaska and the upperhand because of the winner-over-the-other rule in the race for a top two berth that has shaped up to be among three teams, the other being league-leader Meralco.

Wilkerson and Lassiter caught fire in the second half and made all defenses thrown at them look like child’s play, as the duo combined for 45 points in the final two periods, just three short of the entire Star squad’s total in that stretch.

Wilkerson, regarded as the barometer among reinforcements, finished with 44 points, while Lassiter hit all but two of his 25 in the final half, dropping 18 on the dumbfounded Star defense in the third quarter alone.

And when Lassiter cooled off a little in the fourth, Wilkerson stepped up and destroyed the Hotshots with 16 of his total, the last of his eight triples that came at the final 3:18 mark giving the Beermen a 102-83 lead.

Fajardo was suited up but didn’t play for the second straight game because of a knee injury, while Santos wasn’t at the coliseum, still grieving the passing of mom Araceli.

“This game is dedicated to Arwind, we all know what he is going through at the moment,” Austria said. “But it is likely that he will rejoin us in our next game.”

Ricardo Ratliffe tossed in 33 points and had 21 rebounds for Star, which dropped to 4-5 after seeing a three-game winning streak come to a disappointing end.

Star also lost two-time MVP James Yap late in the third quarter to a leg injury. Yap finished with 17 points.

NLEX enhanced its playoff chances earlier after taking down Blackwater, 88-75.

With their backs against the wall and needing to string together wins to advance to the quarterfinals without a hitch, the Road Warriors played with command practically all night as Al Thornton led them on both ends on the way to rising to an even 4-4 record.

The former member of the NBA’s all-Rookie Team scored 22 points and was chiefly responsible in putting the cuffs on Blackwater counterpart MJ Rhett as the Elite tumbled to a third straight defeat in a 3-6 card.

That loss put Blackwater in dire straits with just two games left as the Elite now don’t have their fate resting on their performances in those remaining outings.

NLEX coach Boyet Fernandez bared that the game plan was to hold the Elite to less than 90 points. They did a lot better defensively and the result was one of the lowest scoring losing outputs in the conference.

“It’s really our defense that did it for us today,” Fernandez said after also drawing 22 points and 15 rebounds from the ageless Asi Taulava. “Our goal was to limit them (Elite) to 90 points. This is a great way to win, since we were giving up 107 points in our last three losses.”

Rookie Art dela Cruz had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Elite, who couldn’t get anything from Rhett when the chips were down for them.

Rhett, the youngest import in the lot at just 23 years old, scored 14 points and had 18 rebounds but was scoreless in the fourth period. He was also the man in front of Thornton when the NLEX import dropped seven important points in the final frame.