THE SAN MIGUEL Beermen may have just found the awesome import combination that they have been looking for as Nick Fazekas and Duke Crews wreaked havoc en route to leading the squad to a 92-76 win over the Westport Malaysia Dragons in the Asean Basketball League yesterday at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Crews scored 29 points while Fazekas, debuting for the Beermen, added 26 points and 14 rebounds as San Miguel notched its 12th win of the tournament and were just one victory away from clinching a spot in the semifinal round.
Incidentally, the two were former imports in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup with Crews playing for Rain or Shine and Fazekas suiting up for SMB’s sister squad, the Petron Blaze Boosters. Hotshot local Leo Avenido backstopped the two with 15 points.
The Dragons led early on, 21-20, with their import Tiras Wade, taking stock of the shaded lane with his six markers. However, the Beermen found their intensity from Fazekas and Crews, who rallied the troops with two ferocious slam dunks that buoyed them to a 42-35 lead at halftime.
Then, the Beermen started the second half much like they ended the second canto with Crews getting slams from a nifty pass from Fazekas and an alley-oop from Froilan Baguion, followed by an and-one play by Fazekas, which gave them a 52-35 lead, 7:03 left in the third. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio