Magnolia spoils San Miguel debut of Shabazz Muhammad
Magnolia bounced back strong from an unexpected loss to NorthPort by routing San Miguel, 104-87, Sunday night in the 2021 PBA Governors’ Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
Paul Lee atoned for missing the potential game-winning triple against the Batang Pier by dropping 26 points spiked by 4of-8 shooting from long distance as the Hotshots picked up their 7th win in 8 starts to stay on top of the team standings going into the final stretch of the elimination round.
Shabazz Muhammad finally made his debut for the Beermen but his 29-point, 17-rebound performance wasn’t enough to keep the Beermen from absorbing their 4th loss in 9 outings. The 14th overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft also had 2 assists, a block and a game-high 8 turnovers in 39 minutes of play.
“We just tried to bounce back hard for this game,” said Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero during the post-game presser. “It’s a character game for us.”
“We know we had a bad start last game, although we finished strong, kinapos kami. Pero on this game, we talked about how we will start strong and we need to finish stronger. So ‘yun lang ‘yung pinag-usapan namin,” he added.
CJ Perez led the local charge for SMB with 18 to go with 8 rebounds while Vic Manuel and Marcio Lassiter chipped in 16 and 11 markers, respectively. June Mar Fajardo had 11 rebounds but could only cough up 6 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field in 31 minutes of action.
The Beermen will try to bounce back on Thursday, March 3 when they clash with the skidding Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The scores:
Magnolia 104 – Lee 26, Harris 26, Barroca 12, Dionisio 12, Jalalon 10, Sangalang 9, Corpuz 4, Wong 3, Reavis 2, Escoto 0, Ahanmisi 0.
San Miguel 87 – Muhammad 27, Perez 18, Manuel 16, Lassiter 11, Fajardo 6, Tautuaa 5, Romeo 4, Ross 0, Enciso 0, Brondial 0.
Quarterscores: 25-23, 57-44, 81-62, 104-87.