Beermen take sting out of Cobras

MANILA, Philippines - Getting its local production and displaying a lot more fire, the San Miguel Beermen got back on track with a 94-59 rout of Bangkok Cobras last night in the third AirAsia ASEAN Basketbal League at the Ynares Sports Arena.

With all but two of the players who saw action putting points on the scoreboard and making nearly half of their shots (38-of-78), the Beermen stormed to an early double-digit spread and continued to turn up the heat all throughout to post their third win in five outings.

SMB stood half a game behind AirAsia Phl Patriots (3-1) and Westports Malaysia Dragons (3-1), who go at it in tonight’s ABL action also at the Ynares Sports Arena.

“We shot better tonight and we got off to a faster start,” said SMB coach Bobby Parks, whose wards bounced back from their disappointing 63-71 setback to Singapore Slingers on the road last Wednesday.

“I kinda shuffled the lineup a little bit because in last few games, we got off to poor start and we wanted to put in a quicker team and that’s what we did tonight,” added Parks, whose team seized an early 42-26 spread and went on to enjoy its biggest lead at 94-57.

Making up for their off-target shooting a few days back, the Beermen knocked down 38 of their 78 attempts for a 49 percent accuracy. Their three-point shooting clip (35 percent, 8-of-23) was even better than the overall fieldgoal shotmaking of the Cobras (28 percent, 17 of 61).

Doug Thomas and DJ Johnson combined for only 26 points but got scoring support from Leo Avenido and RJ Rizada, who shot 13 markers each, and Kelvin dela Peña who added 12. Jun Cabatu and Norman Gonzales chipped in eight apiece. Only Froilan Baguion and Marlon Basco failed to score for SMB.

The game’s outcome was a reversal of fortunes for the two teams, with SMB rebounding from its debacle against Singapore and the Cobras (2-3) failing to follow up their 73-70 upset of erstwhile unbeaten Dragons.

“Basically, we just worked on concentration and running our plays. In Singapore, we didn’t run our plays,” said Parks.

“It was one pass and everybody’s going one-on-one and that’s why they were able to beat us. And we shot too bad,” said Parks, who drew 26 assists from his wards this time.

The Beermen broke away with an 18-8 blast at the start of the second canto, fuelled by their might under the boards that resulted in transition baskets, for a 16-point lead.

They grabbed 28 rebounds in the first 20 minutes of play, converting this into 14 points off the fastbreak en route to a 50-34 advantage at intermission.