San Miguel’s formidable local crew held the fort with import Charles Rhodes saddled by fouls as the Beermen repulsed the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 111-98, to close in on the playoffs in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the MOA Arena in Pasay City Saturday night.
The core SMB local group more than made up for the limited minutes played by Rhodes in their Petron Blaze Saturday Special matchup with the Elasto Painters and in the process preserved their perfect (5-0) slate heading to the PBA All-Star Week break.
The E-Painters drew Rhodes’ fourth foul just 17 minutes into the contest and his fifth midway through the third period, but failed to capitalize and went down to a third loss in their last four games.
Rain or Shine is in the middle of the chart at 4-3 in playing its last four games against Star, Barangay Ginebra, GlobalPort and TNT KaTropa.
June Mar Fajardo, Alex Cabagnot, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, Gabby Espinas and Arwind Santos delivered the goods while Rhodes was rotting on the bench. These six players all finished in double figures.
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Espinas top scored among the SMB locals with 15 points that went with eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in a superb relief job.
Santos also had solid numbers off the bench, making 13 markers, two rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block while Fajardo, Cabagnot, Ross and Lassiter were prolific as usual in their roles as starters.
Despite early fouls, Rhodes finished the game and he still ended up with decent production with 26 markers, six boards and two dish-offs against two turnovers.
But it was the SMB local group who did the killing when their import was confined on the bench.
Lassiter nailed one of his two three-pointers as the Beermen hit their first double-digit spread at 51-40.
They closed the half at 57-44 and later led by as many as 22 before claiming another dominant win in the mid-season tourney.
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Santos and Rhodes had 13 and 12, respectively, as they led by 13 at the turn.
