Streaking Petron pummels Air21, 112-86

MANILA, Philippines - Petron Blaze overwhelmed Air21 with an untiring high-octane game, roaring to a third straight win with a 112-86 demolition of the Express in the PBA Governors Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City Wednesday night.

Ripping apart defending champion Rain or Shine, 99-84, the last time out, the Boosters stepped up their game even more and fashioned out the most lopsided win in the tourney thus far, besting the E-Painters’ 94-74 rout of the Globalport Batang Pier on Aug. 17.

“I’m very happy about this win. It means we have a chance to make the upper bracket,” said Petron coach Gie Abanilla.

The format of this short season-ending conference calls for the 10 teams to play a single round elimination play. Eight teams advance to the quarterfinals with the top four enjoying a twice-to-beat advantage over their lower-ranked rivals.

The Express moved deeper down the leader board at 1-3.

Elijah Millsap and his teammates played aggressively throughout, punishing the Express on both ends in chalking up a third consecutive victory after being upset by the Meralco Bolts on Aug. 16.

“We know a lot of us guys can score. First thing we want to establish is defense, be consistent and we’ll be alright,” said Millsap, again leading the Petron charge with 27 points and 12 rebounds.

“We wanted to come out strong. We started a little flat but we picked it up in the third,” added Millsap, efficient with a 9-of-12 field shooting.

“Millsap is a silent workhorse. He's providing leadership and the locals are picking it up,” said Abanilla of their no-nonsense import.

Millsap stood at the forefront of their relentless high-intensity performance that had the Boosters leading by as many as 29 at 89-60.

After barely taking the opening quarter at 24-22, the Boosters shifted into higher gear and pulled away at 82-60 after the third period.

Millsap banged away a trey then executed a tomahawk jam on a fastbreak play as Petron posted its second of two 25-point spreads in the third quarter at 80-55.

Finding it so hard to keep up with their revved-up rivals, Air21 coach Franz Pumaren opted to just rest his import Zach Graham with couples of minutes left to play.

Junmar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos and Chris Lutz also put in double-digit outputs as the Boosters delivered their highest output in a game in the tourney.

Petron averaged only 94.3 points in its first three games.

Graham and KG Canaleta paced the losing team with 19 and 16 points, respectively.

The Boosters slowly broke away in the second period with their second unit outclassing their Air21 counterpart.