MANILA, Philippines — Bull-strong Mike Watkins imposed his will inside and Robert Bolick scored with cold efficiency.
Sparked by the duo’s monster games, NLEX ran over skidding Terrafirma, 104-85, to make it two in a row in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Watkins hauled down 30 rebounds while punching in 26 points and blocking four shots as he pounced on the Dyip’s interior deficiency that was confounded by the so-so performance of import Ryan Richards.
Bolick fired 32 spiked by a perfect 2-of-2 from the four-point arc and an impressive 11-of-14 (78.6 percent) marksmanship overall while dishing out five assists in a second-straight Player of the Game-earning outing.
Perfectly complementing the duo were Xyrus Torres, who shot 15, Tony Semerad, who chipped in 13 and Richie Rodger, who netted seven.
“Ang daming contribution sa locals and ‘yung import namin talagang nagdominate sa ilalim kaya kami nalibre,” said Bolick.
Later, Marcio Lassiter led a 36-24 closing barrage as holder San Miguel Beer posted a come-from-behind 107-104 opening victory over Phoenix (0-3).
Lassiter rifled in 11 of his 15 in the final period, including the go-ahead jumper with 2.3 seconds left to key SMB’s turnaround from 16 down.