PLAYING like a man possessed, former Burger King Superstar Arwind Santos dropped 27-point bomb against the Whopper as the San Miguel Beermen posted 100-85 win on Sunday in the 35th PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Pasig City.

Burger King, with a second straight loss, has dropped to 3-7 win-loss log despite the defensive tremendous effort shown by players.

Santos, who was acquired in a pre-season trade, also took 12 rebounds and put in a lot of work on the other end of the floor to approximate the 28 points and 18 rebounds he had in SMB’s 117-99 win over BK in the first round last October 21.

Richard Yee had 14 points to lead the Whoppers, whose pathetic finish was a far cry from the way it started the game.

The Whoppers let the game slip away by opening up the fourth period shooting 0-for-15 from the field and committing seven turnovers.

JR Quinahan ended the drought with a put back in the last 3:18, but the game was already well beyond BK’s reach by then.

A 35-for-76 field shooting and 24-11 advantage in turnover points helped SMB quell the threat of a BK team trying to bounce back from a 105-118 loss to Talk N Text last Friday but mainly did itself in by shooting just 26-for-82 from the field.

Ronjay Buenafe and Gary David combined for poor 1-for-19 shooting, finishing only with a combined 14 points.

Santos, who went into the game averaging team-highs of 18.2 points and 10.2 rebounds, did not even finish the game. He engaged Ronnie Matias – celebrating his 26th birthday – in a shoving match in the last 2:44 of the game.

Each was assessed a flagrant foul-penalty 1 that carries with it a sixth foul for Matias and a three-minute sit-out for Santos.

The harm was already done by then as the Beermen went on to pad a 91-74 lead at the time of Santos’ exit to a high of 97-76, off a Villanueva triple, 1:59 left.

Santos scored only six points while concentrating on defense in the third period but Tugade picked up the scoring slack with 12 points, enabling SMB to pad a one-point halftime edge to as much as 71-59.
Yet BK refused to go away, unleashing an 8-1 run behind Beau Belga and Carlo Sharma in the last 1:53 of the canto to trail by just 67-72.

Whoppers who got off to a fast start, coming together behind Richard Yee and Matias to open up with an 8-0 lead before stretching the lead to 12-3.

Individual Scores:

San Miguel Beer 100—Santos 27, Tugade 20, Miranda 14, Racela 12, Villanueva 11, Pena 7, Hontiveros 5, Pennisi 3, Eman 1, Cortez 0, Calaguio 0.

Burger King 85 – Yee R, 14, Sharma 12, Yee M 11, Matias 10, Belga 8, Lanete 8, Buenafe 8, David 6, Williams 4, Quinahan 4.

Quarter Scores: 18-22, 45-44; 72-67; 100-85