Bay Area displayed its full might and dominated San Miguel, 114-95, to take a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-five semifinals series in the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the PhilSports Arena on Friday, Dec. 1.
The Dragons made sure to not commit the same mistakes in Game 1 where they trailed big in the first half, embarking on a 10-3 finishing kick in the second quarter that allowed them to build a double-digit spread which they never relinquished until the final buzzer.
Kobey Lam, after making the go-ahead basket in the series opener, continued to roll, dropping 10 of his 25 points in the third quarter when Bay Area did enough to keep a rallying Beermen at bay.
Not even the return of head coach Leo Austria who missed the last five games of the Beermen, could save the Beermen from falling to the 2-0 hole as they struggled to put the clamps down on the Dragons in the defensive end.
Andrew Nicholson also provided inside presence for the Dragons with 34 and 16 rebounds while Zhu Songwei and Glen Yang added 13 points apiece as Bay Area moved one win away from making it to the Finals of the mid-season conference.
Bay Area, just like in the first game, started out flat as SMB quickly raced to a 17-9 lead. Lam, though, spearheaded the Dragons who unloaded a 19-9 run in the final five minutes of the opening frame to take the lead, 26-25.
Vic Manuel and CJ Perez tried to will SMB back to the game but the Dragons simply had answers to every Beermen run. Bay Area then pulled away for good in the final frame when it managed to build the biggest lead of the contest at 21, 112-91.
June Mar Fajardo continued to punish the Bay Area defense dropping 34 points on top of 10 rebounds – all of which, however, went down the drain as the Beermen couldn’t replicate their hot shooting in Game 1, only knocking down seven of their 20 attempts from deep.
After leading the team last time out both, Romeo was held to just five points while Perez only had 13 onf 4-of-12 shooting. Lassiter added 15 while import Devon Scott could only muster 14 points and six rebounds.