ABL: San Miguel Beermen back above .500, move into second with win over Slingers

The San Miguel Beermen fended off the Jobstreet.com Singapore Slingers in a low-scoring affair, 66-55, Sunday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, to move back over the .500 mark and claim solo second in the Asean Basketball League standings. Point guard Chris Banchero led the Beermen with 16 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals, while new import Matt Rogers, who was last with the PBA's San Mig Coffee Mixers, tallied eight points, four rebounds, and five blocks in his debut, replacing the injured Brian Williams. The Slingers led early on, but the slow-starting Beermen found their groove midway through the first, as they used a 17-3 run to finish the period on top, 22-12. In the second, back-to-back makes by former PBA player Junjun Cabatu cut the home team's deficit down to seven points, drawing a timeout from SMB head coach Leo Austria. That led to a triple by Leo Avenido which restored their 10-point lead, and another shot by the reigning MVP as time expired allowed them to enter the break up by the same amount, 38-28. The fourth period saw the Beermen lead by as much as 16 points multiple times within the quarter, the last coming on a Banchero find to Gabe Freeman for a triple, 2:57 left in the game. Rogers then cleaned things up in the endgame, getting a put-back to make it 15 with under a minute left, and then rejecting a shot on the other end. Kyle Jeffers led all scorers with 20 markers and 12 rebounds, but was the only Slinger in double-figures. Cabatu, Rashad Jones-Jennings, and Wei Long Wong added eight each. The San Miguel defense held their foes to just 22 percent shooting, or 17-of-79 from the field. The Philippine squad shot 41 percent themselves. - AMD, GMA News