Rookie Rico Maierhofer scored 15 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and swatted away three shots to lead the Purefoods TJ Giants to a 103-69 demolition of the luckless Rain or Shine Elasto Painters Sunday night in the 2009-2010 KFC PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum. The win raised Purefoods' win-loss record to 4-3 while Rain or Shine remained at the bottom of the standings at 1-7. In the first match of the double-header, Arwind Santos exploded with a career-high 33 points to power the San Miguel Beermen to a 104-89 drubbing of the Barako Bull Energy Boosters. It was San Miguel's sixth straight victory after two losses to stay just half a game behind the pacesetting Alaska Aces (6-1). The E-Boosters suffered their fifth loss in seven games despite having three players recording career-best individual scores. Yousif Aljamal scored career-best 21 points. Paolo Hubalde and rookie Ogie Menor also had career-highs of 20 and 18 points respectively. The game's final score did not reflect the struggle that the Beermen underwent after their 19-point lead was nearly erased by the E-Boosters who caught in the second quarter. Barako Bull outscored San Miguel 31-18 in that quarter to cut the gap to just 45-49 at halftime. However, Santos, Mike Cortez, Denok Miranda and Dondon Hontiveros conspired to bail San Miguel out of trouble. Hontiveros scored 21 points while Miranda came off the bench to pour 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. Cortez scored seven of his 10 points also in the same quarter. Earlier on Saturday, Cyrus Baguio drained a clutch three-pointer with two minutes left in the game to power the Barangay Ginebra Kings to a pulsating 83-79 win against the Burger King Whoppers in an out-of-town game in Tubid, Lanao del Norte. Baguio finished with 15 points to keep Ginebra abreast of the leaders with a 5
