PHOENIX STEPS ON GAS IN PBA ON TOUR DEBUT

MANILA, Philippines - Youth-laden Phoenix showed its mettle in a gritty 106-101 win over San Miguel Beer to get its PBA On Tour campaign off and running Wednesday night at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

Eight players led by Simon Camacho produced 10 points or more for the Fuel Masters, who stood firm in the face of SMB’s furious fourth-quarter storm and secured the upset with an 8-0 windup.

Camacho topscored with 15 markers to go with eight rebounds, his brilliant plays allowing Phoenix to seize huge leads that reached a high of 26 early on.

Tyler Tio rifled in 14 highlighted by a booming trey that wrested the lead back to the Fuel Masters, 102-101. Larry Muyang (11-12), RR Garcia (11), Sean Manganti (10), Kurt Lojera (10) and Raul Soyud (10, including a dagger layup that stretched the Phoenix margin to 104-101) also contributed heavily.

“After ‘nung last conference, mga two or three weeks lang kaming off then takbo uli. Gusto talaga namin bumawi next season,” said Camacho, the game’s Best Player.

In his best performance in a long while, a fit-again Terrence Romeo sizzled with 27 while Robbie Herndon shot 21 to lead the Beermen, who sat out key players June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter and Simon Enciso in their maiden appearance.

Phoenix matched the winning starts of Meralco, which hacked out a 97-89 victory over NorthPort Wednesday afternoon, and Blackwater, 93-88 victor over NLEX in Sunday’s opener.

Meanwhile, Converge and Terrafirma tangle as they hit the court for the first time today at 5 p.m. also at Ynares-Pasig. The Road Warriors seek a bounceback versus debuting Rain or Shine later at 7:30 p.m.

2023-05-25T17:41:11Z dg43tfdfdgfd