Bay Area bounces back, pounces on Fajardo-less SMB

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Bay Area Dragons made sure they’ll redeem themselves in style and demolished the undermanned San Miguel Beermen, 113-87, in the ongoing 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

After losing their last game at the hands of the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in a lopsided game, the foreign guest team found their stroke and capitalized on the absence of PBA’s only six-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) June Mar Fajardo who will be out for a month due to a throat injury.

Fajardo’s unavailability for the Beermen left a lot of holes, especially in the post where Bay Area import and former NBA player Andrew Nicholson asserted his dominance.

The towering big man was a beast in the shaded lane and put up 39 big points, 12 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block.

After going unconscious after the first quarter, Bay Area’s game plan was plain and simple: Give the ball to Nicholson and let him create.

As a result, Nicholson dropped 25 of his 39 points in just the first half and had an easy time against the defense of Diamond Stone and Moala Tautuaa.

Aside from Nicholson’s offensive efficiency, Bay Area’s guards also stepped up to the challenge and sank several wide-open three-point shots when San Miguel decided to double-team Nicholson at the start of the second half.

“We learned from the loss which was nice to see. We got better against a quality team. Really happy with tonight’s performance,” said Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian.

San Miguel was led by shooting guard CJ Perez who scored a team-high 19 points backstopped by veteran big man Vic Manuel with 15 markers.

Stone, San Miguel’s import, played a sub-par game and only tallied 11 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists.

The newly-crowned PBA All-Filipino champions will have the chance to bounce back when they take on the Converge FiberXers on Friday.