MANILA — What a difference a champion import could make – even if he's not on monster mode. With the 6'10” Denzel Bowles, last season's Best Import awardee, continuing to regain his old deadly form, the defending champion San Mig Coffee Mixers posted their first back-to-back victories, beating the GlobalPort Batang Pier, 91-84, Saturday in a PBA Commissioner's Cup road game in Naga City. Bowles did not even register his usual eye-popping numbers, finishing with “just” 18 points and seven rebounds. He even fouled out with less than two minutes left in the game. But his mere presence on the court appeared sufficient for his teammates to get all fired up. P.J. Simon scored 17 points, while James Yap added 15 as the Mixers notched their second win in five games, steadily climbing from the bottom to joint fifth to seventh place in the standings in the company of idle Talk N Text and Meralco. San Mig Coffee scored its first victory against Talk N Text, 90-82, last Sunday. The Mixers led by as much as 23 points, 46-23, early in the second quarter. However, the Batang Pier made a 10-0 run to cut San Mig Coffee's lead at 46-33 at halftime. Globalport continued to climb back in the second half behind the torrid shooting of Gary David and Japeth Aguilar. David, the PBA scoring champion for the last three seasons, led all scorers with 27 points, 22 of them in the second half. Aguilar added 21 points, but his ill-advised shots in the homestretch eventually spelled doom for the Batang Pier. After an Aguilar three-point shot that failed to even hit iron, Yap buried a long triple to give the Mixers an insurmountable 87-77 lead with a minute left to play. GlobalPort thus suffered its fourth loss in six games as it skidded to solo eighth place in the standings of the 10-team tournament.
