Boosters, Mixers take openers

MANILA, Philippines - Petron Blaze found its range in the fourth quarter, raining treys on Barako Bull in a decisive attack carrying the Boosters to a come-from-behind 101-88 win in Game One of their PLDT MyDSL PBA Philippine Cup best-of-three quarterfinals showdown at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City last night.

Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot and Chris Lutz combined for six triples to highlight a vicious 29-4 run Petron unleashed in the payoff period to turn the game around and claim the decisive head start in the short series.

Stopping the Energy Cola’s own hot shooting early on, the Boosters, the playoffs third seeds, now have two chances to wrap up the series – in Game Two Friday or Game Three, if necessary, Sunday.

Governors Cup champ San Mig Coffee picked up from where it left off in the elims, blasting all-Filipino three-peat titlist Talk n Text, 90-83, in the opener of their own best-of-three quarters faceoff.

The Super Coffee Mixers stoked the fire of their four-game closing romp in the elims and moved in the threshold of the Final Four.

Lassiter, barely back from a brief US trip where he attended the wake of his grandmother, dished out a spirited game at the finish, anchoring Petron’s 34-15 pounding of Barako in the payoff period.

The 6-foot-2 Fil-Am forward scored 13 of his 17 points in the last quarter – nine from the three-point area.

“He just planed in from the States and gave us a very good contribution,” said Petron coach Gee Abanilla.

Cabagnot and Arwind Santos also finished with 17 points while Junmar Fajardo, Lutz and Chris Ross added 15, 14 and 10, respectively, for the Boosters who struggled early on, trailing by 12 at 35-47 late in the first half.

The Energy Cola were still in command at 78-71 before Lassiter hit a three-pointer, Lutz scored on a daring drive then Lassiter fired away another trey to spark Petron’s rip-roaring finish.

“I want to give a lot of credit to Barako. They showed up today. They hit a lot of tough shots,” said Abanilla. “But we clamped down on defense later and got our shots in the second half.”

In their initial salvo, the Boosters scored 17 unanswered points to zoom ahead at 88-78.

PJ Simon went 7-of-14 from the field and finished with a game-high 20 points that went with seven rebounds for the Mixers, who repeated their 100-87 conquest of the Tropang Texters last Friday.

“We had a pretty good start and we played well from start to finish,” said San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone.

“I wish it was a knockout game. Hopefully, we can repeat on Friday. We’ve got to figure out how to beat them one more time,” Cone added.