MANILA — Pitted against his former mentor Danny Ildefonso for the first time, man-mountain June Mar Fajardo showed that the student has learned his lessons well as the ace sophomore center powered the Petron Blaze Boosters to a 96-87 demolition of the Meralco Bolts Saturday night in the PLDT Home DSL Philippine Cup at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum. Fajardo led the Blazers with 19 points and 15 rebounds in just 27 minutes of action. Petron finished as the No. 3 seed after ending the elimination round with a 10-4 win-loss card. It will face the still undetermined sixth seed in a best-of-three quarterfinals series. The loss pushed Meralco on the brink of elimination as it ended its elimination round campaign with a 5-9 card, tying GlobalPort at seventh to eighth place in the standings. The Bolts' chances of entering the quarterfinals now rest primarily with a Barako Bull (5-8) victory against Alaska (4-9). In such a scenario, Meralco will snare the eighth seed and faces top seed Barangay Ginebra in the quarterfinals. However, if Alaska wins, the Aces will likely face the Bolts in a sudden-death playoff for the last quarterfinals berth. Former Meralco point guard Chris Ross played his best game yet for Petron, finishing with 18 points, 17 of them in the second half. Arwind Santos tallied 17 points and five rebounds, while Alex Cabagnot and Chris Lutz added 14 and 12 points, respectively. The Boosters won despite missing the services of Marcio Lassiter who had to fly to the US after his grandmother passed away. The Petron gunner is expected to return to Manila in time for the playoffs. Gary David led Meralco with 18 points before fouling out. Ildefonso, playing for the first time against Petron where he served for 15 long years, dished out 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five shotblocks. Jared Dillinger added 16 points, while John Wilson and Cliff Hodge had 13 apiece for Meralco. The two teams fought evenly for much of the first half before the bomb to take a 44-33 lead at the half. Petron pounced on Meralco's series of turnovers in the second half to cruise to victory. Rain or Shine 104, Air21 94 The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters earned a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals as they grabbed the second seed with a 104-94 drubbing of the hapless Air21 Express in the second match of the Saturday double-header. Rain or Shine will go up against the No. 7 seed, most likely the GlobalPort Batang Pier, in the quarterfinals. Three rookies — Raymond Almazan, Alex Nuyles, and Jeric Teng — spearheaded the Rain or Shine romp as the Painters finished the elimination round with an 11-3 card. The three rookies scored 13 points apiece. Almazan scored all but one of his 13 points in the fourth quarter when he and Nuyles ignited a 15-0 run as Rain or Shine pulled away, 92-74. The Express were led by Joseph Yeo and KG Canaleta who finished with 19 points apiece. Vic Manuel and Asi Taulava added 17 and 16 points apiece while Renren Ritualo chipped in with 13. Air 21 found itself once again at the bottom of the heap with a 3-11card – the fourth time in six straight tournaments that it suffered that same result. Games Sunday: Alaska vs. Barako Bull; and Talk N Text vs. Ginebra.
