MANILA, Philippines — Titan Ultra came out with great resolve and played with composure to shock San Miguel Beer, 119-112 and secure its first win in the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup on Saturday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Spitfire guard Joshua Munzon banged in 29 points, three rebounds, five assists and four steals, as he played beautiful music with import Michael Gilmore, who churned out 28 and 13 boards to help the Giant Risers hand new coach Renzy Bajar his first win.
Cade Flores added 13 markers and eight rebounds, while Fran Yu had nine and 10 assists for Titan Ultra, which opened the conference with back-to-back defeats.
“Our challenge, especially to my players to play with some pride.
Number one on their jobs, on this team, because this Titan team can beat anybody,” shared Bajar after the game.
“Our game plan, since San Miguel is coming off a championship last conference, they are still in cloud nine and at the same time, they might still be tired so they might not take us seriously,” he added in Filipino.
“That’s what we took advantage of, the opportunity that San Miguel gave us.” While the Beermen made their expected run after being down by as many as 21 points and closing in to within 90-96, Munzon became the anchor for the Giant Ultra after scoring 11 markers in the last period while Gilmore sat on the bench after picking up his fifth foul.
Titan Ultra shot 53.3 percent from the floor, while scoring 29 points off SMB’s 21 turnovers.
Import Marcus Lee proved ineffective in his PBA debut, scoring just four points and three rebounds in just 24 minutes of play.
CJ Perez led SMB with 27 points, Don Trollano added 21, Mo Tautuaa 18, while June Mar Fajardo 15 and 17 boards in the loss.