By REYNALD MAGALLON
San Miguel head coach Jorge Gallent was looking at floor spacers to add to his team, hence, the Beermen went after both Juami Tiongson and Andreas Cahilig from Terrafirma during the offseason.
On their first games in Beermen uniform, the two showed exactly just that, keying the defending champions’ come-from-behind 107-104 victory over the Phoenix Fuel Masters on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
“It gave us the depth shooting wise,” said Gallent who felt that his team was still lacking three-point shooters who can spread the floor and give SMB main man June Mar Fajardo space to operate inside the paint.
“It helps June Mar a lot and Marcio (Lassiter) a lot because they added firepower from the outside. Now we have guys who can shoot the treys and penetrate. Andreas is a good defender and Juami also,” he added.
Tiongson seemed to be still adjusting to his new role as he only finished with eight points, five assists and two rebounds although he had a crucial three-pointer down the stretch that sustained a huge fourth quarter rally for the Beermen.
Cahilig, on the other hand, was a huge spark off the bench for SMB, chipping in 12 points – including the timely three-straight triples that put the Beermen back in the game after trailing by as many as 16 points.
Their efforts eventually paved the way to the Beermen victory which came after Lassiter hit a go-ahead baseline jumper with 2.6 seconds left, off a nice feed from Tiongson.
“These guys are coming and playing, we’re just trying to make them fit. We’re doing a good job trying to involve them and trust them,” Lassiter said of their new additions.
“That’s the biggest thing with our team, trusting each one and everybody and making sure that we play together and tonight, we actually played a lot better,” he added.
Gallent, for his part, was the least surprised with the performance of the two new Beermen, knowing full well what they are capable of doing, especially during their time with the Dyip.
“I was expecting them to play how they played when they were in Terrafirma, which I told them before the game to just play how you guys are playing in Terrafirma and you guys should do okay here,” said Gallent.
