By REYNALD MAGALLON
Marcio Lassiter blew a kiss to the heavens as he nailed a stop-and-pop triple that also sent the huge crowd – both from the San Miguel and Ginebra fans cheering in unison.
History rewritten.
The San Miguel sharpshooter has formally etched his name as the finest marksman of them all, drilling four triples in the opening quarter of the SMB-Ginebra game to formally surpass PBA great Jimmy Alapag in the all-time three-point list on Sunday, May 15.
With history within his grasp, needing only three treys to beat Alapag’s 1,250 triples, Lassiter came out waxing hot from deep and actually drilled four triples through the first seven minutes of the game.
The 37-year-old set the tone with his blistering start, drilling his first three-point conversion with only 42 seconds gone by into the contest.
He then tied Alapag’s number with a left corner triple at the 9:50 mark before formally smashing the record with a transition trey over Maverick Ahanmisi with 7:08 left and give SMB a commanding 18-5 lead.
If that was not enough, after his first miss from the three-point territory, Lassiter then rifled in another booming triple as SMB took a 23-7 lead, forcing Ginebra head coach Tim Cone to sue for time.
Lassiter let out a loud roar as he walked towards the bench and got swarmed by his teammates who hugged and celebrated the newly-crowned three-point king.
The euphoria from the celebration of Lassiter’s milestone also built the momentum for SMB which took a commanding 37-13 lead at the end of the opening frame and even padded it to as big as points, 66-31, at the break.
Lassiter’s hot 4-of-5 shooting from deep also rubbed off to his teammates as SMB as a team, already nailed, seven triples on high 58 percent clip from deep and a 63.4 percent from the field.
