Washington, Pennisi add muscle, power to Beermen

Jay Washington and Mick Pennisi seemed to have found a new home in San Miguel.

Washington scored 18 points and Pennisi had five rebounds and two assists as they helped power the Beermen past the Red Bull Barakos, 99-90, Monday at the start of the PBA pre-season tournament at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines gym.

With the entry of the two big men, SMB became bigger and heftier, giving the other teams problems in match-ups. Washington and Pennisi are also blessed with good shooting touch so they provide coach Siot Tanquingcen a lot of offensive options other than Dondon Hontiveros, Danny Seigle and Danny Ildefonso.

“They’re a big team. Obviously the addition of Mick and JayWash has made SMB a tough match-up,” said Red Bull deputy coach Gee Abanilla, who called the shots for the Barakos in the absence of head coach Yeng Guiao.

Tanquingcen, however, insists his wards need some more fine tuning to be fully cohesive in time for the new PBA season.

Expectations, he admits, are high but it remains to be seen whether his new-look team is up to the task.

“It’s always been that way. Expectations are always high. Hopefully this time we could deliver,” Tanquingcen said.

Against a team that let go off three key players (Pennisi, Topex Robinson and Kiko Adriano), the Beermen dominated the game early and sealed the victory by halftime when they cruised to a 64-40 bulge.

Cyrus Baguio scored 15 points to show the way for the Barakos.