Jay R. Gotera Saudi Gazette MANILA — Last PBA season's Best Import dude showed up Friday night looking like a dud. After leading the San Mig Coffee Mixers to the championship in the 2012 PBA Commissioner's Cup, Denzel Bowles suited up once more for the Mixers, generating high expectations from the fans that he would once again spark his team, which was still winless after two games. But what a huge letdown. Only the shadow of the former Best Import showed up, finishing with a measly 12 points, as the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters devoured the San Mig Coffee Mixers, 93-65, in the 2013 PBA Commissioner's Cup at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. The 6-10 Bowles, who was coming off a stint with the Zheijang Golden Bulls in the Chinese Basketball Association, managed to grab 14 rebounds. But he also had a game-high eight turnovers amid tight guarding by Beau Belga and JR Quinahan. Bowles' sluggish game contaminated the rest of the Mixers as they fell into a scoring slump. The usually reliable Peter June Simon scored only four points on 2-for-8 shooting. Starting point guard Mark Barroca missed all four of his attempts. James Yap was the lone bright star for the Mixers – until he suffered an injury early in the third quarter. Yap finished with 13 points. The E-Painters pulled away in the decisive third quarter, leading 70-45 after a 22-10 run. The E-Painters kept pouring on the points while shackling the Mixers, leading by as much as 33 points, 92-59. Four E-Painters scored in double digits in a balanced offensive display. Jervy Cruz had 16 points, Chris Tiu added 15, Croatian import Bruno Sundov chimed in 14, while Larry Rodriguez contributed 10 points. New recruit Alex Mallari led San Mig Coffee with 15 points. The San Mig Coffee thus joined sister team Barangay Ginebra at the bottom of the standings, both with a 0-3 win-loss card. Rain or Shine improved to 2-1. Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao said his team was lucky to play against Bowles who was obviously still not in game shape. “It's just San Mig Coffee's off night. I got what I was hoping for, which was Denzel Bowles not in good shape,” said Guiao. In the first game of the Friday double-header, Josh Urbiztondo drilled 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Barako Bull Energy Cola to a 91-86 come-from-behind victory against the Air21 Express. Urbiztondo knocked in two huge treys and had three steals and five assists to spark a 22-4 Energy Cola run that turned an 11-point deficit into a seven-point lead, 88-81, with less than two minutes left. Import Evan Brock top-scored for Barako Bull with 23 points while grabbing 15 rebounds. JC Intal added 16 points. The Energy Cola notched their second win in three games to improve to a 3-1 win-loss card, tying idle Petron Blaze for second to third place in the standings behind the pacesetting Alaska Aces (3-0). Air21 import Michael Dunigan led all scorers with 30 points and 19 rebounds. KG Canaleta added 15 points, while Mike Cortez chipped in with 14 as the Express suffered their second straight loss, dropping to 1-2. Barako Bull won despite having four players — Sean Anthony, Celino Cruz, Roger Yap and Emman Monfort – in sick bay and with guard Jonas Villanueva hampered by injury.
