CJ ON FIRE AS BEERMEN ROLL

On the heels of his PBA All Star Game explosion, an ontarget CJ Perez delivered his most incendiary performance in the Philippine Cup to date.

- OLMIN LEYBA

And with Perez as lead gunner with 32 big points, the defending champion San Miguel Beer trounced Phoenix Super LPG at the resumption of play, 116-102, for a league-leading 3-0 card on Easter Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Perez's scoring outburst came a week after sizzling with 39 markers in the star-studded game in Bacolod where he rediscovered his shooting touch after accounting for only seven and nine in SMB's first two wins of the conference.

"CJ is a great player. He knows what to do. And now he realized that he's a shooter after the All-Star Game. I guess the four-point shots there gave him the confidence to shoot threes now," said Beermen coach Jorge Gallent of Perez.