Magnolia def San Miguel, 94-65 [PBA on Tour | July 9, 2023]

There’s still no stopping the rampaging Magnolia Hotshots, cruising past against a nine-man San Miguel Beer team, 94-65, for win No. 8 in the PBA on Tour at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig Sunday.

Calvin Abueva finally made his first appearance in the preseason series, presented by Arena Plus and sponsored by Bingo Plus, and was his old self as a rebounding demon, helping the Hotshots to within three games of a sweep of their On Tour assignments.

And many other Hotshots stepped forward to make up for the poor shooting of ace guards Paul Lee and Mark Barroca as Magnolia ripped apart the badly depleted SMB side.

Abueva came through with 16 rebounds plus nine markers in 19 minutes of play as Jong Laput delivered a double-double game with 21 points and 11 boards as well as Abu Tratter with 11 markers and the same number of rebounds.

Jerrick Ahanmisi and Jio Jalalon were two other Hotshots who put in double-digit outputs with 13 and 11, respectively, as Lee and Barroca fired blanks in what was anticipated as a fierce shootout among guards of both sides.

Lee was 0-of-6 from the field while Barroca was 0-of-4, barely hitting the score board with 1-of-2 charities.

Nevertheless, the Hotshots proved too much against the Beermen playing mostly with reserves and apprentices in the absence of June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Moala Tautuaa, Chris Ross, Vic Manuel, Terrence Romeo and CJ Perez.