MANILA — A low-scoring game by June Mar Fajardo used to mean bad news for San Miguel.
Nowadays, his teammates are stepping up and that could mean trouble for the rest of the league.
San Miguel raced to a fast start to drop Meralco, 101-86, in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City on Wednesday.
| PBA Philippine Cup standings | ||||
| Team | Won | Lost | Pct | Next game |
| San Miguel | 5 | 1 | 0.83 | Bkw (Jan. 6) |
| Talk N Text | 4 | 2 | 0.67 | NLEX (Jan. 7) |
| Rain or Shine | 4 | 2 | 0.67 | Phx (Jan. 8) |
| Blackwater | 4 | 3 | 0.57 | SMB (Jan. 6) |
| Phoenix | 4 | 3 | 0.57 | RoS (Jan. 8) |
| GlobalPort | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | Mer (Jan. 6) |
| Alaska | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | Star (Jan. 11) |
| Star | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | Ala (Jan. 11) |
| Ginebra | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | SMB (Jan. 8) |
| Meralco | 2 | 4 | 0.33 | Gpt (Jan. 6) |
| Mahindra | 1 | 5 | 0.17 | Mer (Jan. 11) |
| NLEX | 1 | 5 | 0.17 | TNT (Jan. 7) |
| ~Standings updated after Dec. 28, Wednesday games | ||||
Marcio Lassiter finished with a team-high 21 points, Alex Cabagnot scored 17 of his 20 in the first half, and Chris Ross added 18 points and six steals, as the Beermen closed the first half of the tournament atop the standings with a 5-1 record.
Fajardo, the three-time reigning MVP, scored 11 points.
Meralco's game plan was to throw multiple defenders at Fajardo and dared San Miguel to beat them from the outside.
The Beermen obliged, running and gunning every chance they got, and taking and making threes.
"The good thing is yung mga perimeter shooter nag-click," San Miguel coach Leo Austria said.
"I think (Meralco) concentrated on how to stop June Mar on the post. Alam naman ng mga players namin na hindi na si June Mar ang magpapanalo sa game."
Meralco tried to go the same route as the first game, which saw Phoenix come back from 26 points down to beat GlobalPort.
Meralco whittled a deficit that ballooned to as many as 31 points down to nine on a couple of occasions in the fourth quarter.
But the well-rested Beermen, coming off an 11-day break, doused every rally by Meralco.
Chris Newsome scored 16 points for Meralco, which fell behind by as many as 31 points.
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