BEHIND a scorching three-point shooting, the Petron Blaze Boosters turned a tight contest into a rout as they pummeled the San Mig Coffee Mixers, 100-84, last night in Game One of their best-of-seven championship series of the 38th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
After hitting just three three-pointers in the first three quarters, the top-seeded Boosters sank seven trifectas in the payoff period to take the series-opener pulling away.
Prolific import Elijah Millsap came up with triple-double performance, leading Petron with a game-high 35 points on top of 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
It was however the timely explosion of Chris Lutz that helped the Blazers break the game wide open as he scored all of his 11 points in the pivotal fourth quarter.
Petron trailed San Mig at the start of the fourth, 59-61, but Lutz hit a three-pointer followed by back-to-back baskets by Marcio Lassiter and Millsap as Petron never trailed again after going up, 66-61.
San Mig’s first basket in the fourth came in the 9:08 mark courtesy of Rafi Reavis but Lutz dropped another three-pointer to give Petron a 69-63 lead.
Aside from Millsap and Luts, Arwind Santos, June Mar Fajardo, Lassiter and Alex Cabagnot also scored in double figures in a balanced Petron attack./EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CALVIN D. CORDOVA