By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The San Miguel Beermen recovered from their disappointing loss against the Converge FiberXers and stomped over the NorthPort Batang Pier, 145-132, in the ongoing PBA Governor’s Cup last February 15, 2023.
After a nip-and-tuck affair in the first half, the Beermen’s well-oiled offensive artillery shut the Batang Pier down in the last two quarters who just had no answers for San Miguel’s import Cameron Clark.
Clark tallied his best scoring performance in the Governor’s Cup so far after exploding for 44 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists.
NorthPort did enough hanging around San Miguel when import Kevin Murphy and Arvin Tolentino engaged in a shootout with June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, and Clark.
The Batang Pier had a good job breaking the zone of the Beermen and pulled themselves within five points, 72-67, at the end of the first half.
However, San Miguel gave NorthPort a dose of their own medicine when the Bonnie Tan-led crew opted to go for a zone which was also capitalized by the men in red.
The duo of Jericho Cruz and Simon Enciso penetrated at will and set up wide-open looks for Fajardo and Clark underneath that helped balloon their lead to as much as 18 points in the third period.
NorthPort unleashed one last run courtesy of a waxing-hot Murphy who single-handedly brought them back to the game after trimming San Miguel’s lead to just six points, 111-105.
Just when NorthPort thought they could outshoot the Beermen, the more stacked San Miguel team went berserk in the last eight seven minutes of the game and ended the final canto with a 37-point output.
This was also Fajardo’s statement game when he got limited to just seven points after fouling out in their loss against Converge.
The league’s only six-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) buckled to work early in the first half and dominated NorthPort with 29 big points, 12 rebounds, a block, and an assist.
Despite Murphy’s 39-point eruption built from an impressive 15/30 shooting from the field, the Batang Pier still couldn’t break their losing spell after suffering its sixth-straight loss in the import-laced conference and is yet to clinch a single win if they want to punch a ticket to the playoffs.
