Shabazz Muhammad explodes for 57 points to lead epic San Miguel rally vs Meralco

Shabazz Muhammad, Meralco's original import choice, caught fire for 57 points against the Bolts as he led a San Miguel rally for a 115-110 come-from-behind victory to boost their twice-to-beat bonus push in the 2021 PBA Governors' Cup on Saturday.

Muhammad was nothing short of sensational, dropping a whopping 45 of his 57-point total in an epic second half comeback, and grabbing 19 rebounds as his Beermen improved to 7-4 for an outright playoffs berth while the Bolts went down to 6-4.

June Mar Fajardo was also effective on both ends with 16 markers and 14 boards while Marcio Lassiter and Vic Manuel combined for 23 points.

San Miguel had to buck a slow start after a 24-point deficit at halftime which saw four Meralco players already in double-digit mark, led by import Tony Bishop who dropped 15 of his overall output.

San Miguel roared back in the third period with a furious rally.

Chris Banchero first opened the frame with a basket to push their lead to its biggest of 26, 72-46, but that shrank to as low as 77-58 when SMB kept its pace with the Bolts.

But the Beermen's huge barrage came at a point when Muhammad ignited for a personal 17-7 run as they inch closer by just a single digit, 84-75, with 3:03 left in the quarter. The Bolts held on to keep their lead by the end of the third, 92-83.

Muhammad, however, was unstoppable from that point on as after leading a 9-2 run early in the payoff period, 94-98, the former NBA cager dropped six straight points to give the Beermen the lead, 100-98.

But the Beermen lost some steam and went scoreless for over five minutes as the Bolts countered with an 8-0 spurt to go up again, 106-100.

Muhammad missed both his charities but got the rebound for a putback basket as they regained the lead, 111-110, with 29 seconds left in the game. A turnover by Bolts led to two free throws for Muhammad, which basically sealed the deal for SMB.

The scores:

San Miguel 115 - Muhammad 57, Fajardo 14, Manuel 13, Lassiter 10, Romeo 9, Perez 6, Tautuaa 4, Brondial 0, Ross 0,  Cruz 0.

Meralco 110 - Bishop 28, Quinto 18, Maliksi 16, Banchero 13, Black 13, Alamzan 9, Hugnatan 7,  Newsome 5, Hodge 0.

Quarters: 28-36, 46-70, 83-92, 115-110.

—JMB, GMA News