The Turbo Chargers dominated the skidding Beermen practically all night and further boosted their stock on their third straight win and fourth in six games in all.
Coming off back-to-back victories over Purefoods and Pop Cola, Shell made it three in a row for the first time in six months with Askia Jones dishing out a solid game once again and his local teammates stepping up their own games with Paras back in the sideline. Paras, who sat out practically the entire Commissioner’s Cup with a foot injury, suffered a strained thigh muscle in their last game Friday.
Jones, the league's leading scorer, was his usual deadly self, pumping in 35 points while Mike Hrabak played big coming off the bench, tallying 17 points, six rebounds and the same number of assists.
Lamont Strothers matched Jones’ point output and Danny Ildefonso added 21 but San Miguel just couldn’t brandish its old devastating form sans the injured Seigle.
The Beermen, who have built their own dynasty with a team anchored on Ildefonso and Seigle, suffered a fourth consecutive defeat only for the first time in five years.
Dishing out probably their finest game in the season-ending conference, the Turbo Chargers simply outclassed the Beermen, taking a 28-18 lead at the end of the first quarter, sat on a 58-42 lead at halftime and carried a 76-64 advantage over to the payoff period. "My players got themselves involved in the game the way I asked them to after our last game," said Shell coach Perry Ronquillo.
True enough, all the players fielded in by Ronquillo made their presence felt in the contest as Shell stopped San Miguel’s domination of their head-on matches. For the record, the Turbo Chargers won over the Beermen only for the second time in their last seven games.
Ronquillo rotated only eight players and all them made it to the scoring column with Rob Wainwright the third Turbo Chargers to hit double-figures with 16.
The Beermen actually staged a rally in the fourth quarter but the best they could do was chopp their deficit to six, 85-91, with time down to 1:04.
After Strothers missed on a drive with the count standing at 85-91, Jones put the outcome of the game beyond doubt with two charities off a foul by Freddie Abuda in the next play.
Asi Taulava canned in a freak three-pointer and made two free-throws in the last 29 seconds of play as Talk N Text stopped Sta. Lucia, 81-80, in the second game.
The Phone Pals firmed up their hold of second place at 5-2 as they dealt the Realtors their first loss in seven outings.