MANILA – Shrugging off an ankle injury, Baser Amer powered Meralco Bolts to a come-from-behind 93 85 victory over San Miguel Beermen in the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
After rolling his ankle midway in the fourth period with the Bolts down 71-75, Amer converted a triple and three free throws to tie the score at 79-all.
He drained two more triples to surge his team ahead at 85-81.
Bolts increased the lead further to 88-81 on free throws by Chris Newsome and Arinze Onuaku but the Beermen made its last push to come to within 83-88 on a layup by Arwind Santos.
Two free throws by Amer sealed the win for Bolts.
Amer finished the match with 28 points, including five 3-point conversions.
Newsome and Jared Dillinger added 23 and 14 points, respectively.
With the victory, the Bolts improved to 3-1 win-loss slate.
“Baser and Chris played well together in the backcourt. They picked up from where they left off in the last game,” said Bolts head coach Norman Black.
Troy Gillenwater finished with double-double 19 points and 14 rebounds. June Mar Fajardo and Alex Cabagnot had 16 points each. Christian Standhardinger struggled in his debut with four points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
In the first game, Columbian Dyip survived numerous runs from Rain or Shine Elasto Painters for a 104-96 victory and handed the latter its first defeat in four games in the conference.
Dyip waxed hot in the offensive end early with Rashawn McCarthy and Jerramy King hitting their outside shots and reinforcement John Fields scoring from inside for an 11 point lead.
Painters rallied back several times in the second half and even took a lead as high as six points but the Dyip always had its answers from Fields and McCarthy to preserve the victory.
Fields led the way with double-double 34 points and 11 rebounds. McCarthy chipped in conference-best 23 points, including six triples, while King has double-double 13 points and 10 rebounds for Dyip./PN
