Beermen rally past Slingers

MANILA, Philippines - San Miguel Beermen shook off an erratic game to hack out a 68-64 escape act over Singapore Slingers and cement their hold of the lead in the AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League at the Ynares Sports Arena yesterday.

Nick Fazekas fired 12 of his game-high 23 points in the payoff period as the Beermen battled back from 10 points down to pick up their fifth straight triumph for a league-leading 15-4 overall.

The AirAsia Phl Patriots moved just half a game behind SMB after improving to 14-4 at the expense of Saigon Heat, 76-70.

Anthony Johnson shot 19 points and issued five assists as comebacking Nakiea Miller added 17 markers, nine boards, and two blocks as the Patriots pulled off the home win and arrested a two-game slide.

“We dug ourselves a hole with our turnovers but we showed lots of tenacity and aggressiveness in coming out of it,” said the 6-11 Fazekas who was also a monster off the boards with 19 rebounds against the Slingers (7-10).

Pouncing on errors after errors committed by SMB (22 turnovers in all), the Slingers seized control from the second quarter on, holding a 56-46 lead up until the early part of the final canto.

It was then that Fazekas took over, stringing up eight straight points to fuel SMB’s furious fightback.

Duke Crews slammed it home to make it 59-61 and then Fazekas swatted away Slinger Wei Long Wong’s stab, leading to a Leo Avenido three-pointer that put SMB ahead, 62-61, 3:25 left.