MANILA, Philippines - Burger King celebrated its change in monicker from Titans to Whoppers with a 123-110 rout of the Barako Bull Energy Boosters last night in the Motolite PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.
Dishing out an A-1 performance, the Whoppers led by as many as 28 points early in the fourth quarter then simply went through the motion en route to picking a third win in five outings.
Coach Yeng Guiao’s BK team played its best game in the tourney coming at the expense of his former club Barako Bull.
“It could have been another way. It so happened that we had an extra ordinary night. Everybody played well without exception,” said Guiao after the Whoppers dealt the Energy Boosters a fourth defeat against a lone win.
“I guess it’s partly a result of stability we’ve got after the closure of the management change. Those talks and the uncertainties caused little distraction to the team,” Guiao added as the team went back under the Lina Group management.
The Whoppers played so well that coach Guiao enjoyed the luxury of resting import Shawn Daniels in the entire fourth quarter.
Daniels nonetheless came through with a double-double job with 13 rebounds and 12 points with five local BK players in Arwind Santos, Gary David, Erick Rodriguez, Cholo Villanueva and Marvin Cruz joining him in double figures in scoring.
Scooter McFadgon led all scorers with 31 but more than half of which he made when BK had already settled the outcome of the game.
For all intents and purposes, the game was all over when the Whoppers made it 97-70 at the end of the third period.
The Whoppers established control early, taking double-digit leads right in the first quarter before closing the half at 63-51.
They poured on the heat returning from the halftime break, pouncing on the Energy Boosters hard in the third period to open up a 27-point spread.
BK terribly outclassed Barako Bull in the third canto, converting 59.1 percent of its shots compared to the Energy Boosters’ 33.3-percent clip.