MANILA, Philippines – Phoenix Super LPG, a nine-man team, defeated Meralco 100 to 93 on Sunday night at the Ynares Sports Arena, powered by the outstanding performance of Raul Soyud, to win two straight PBA on Tour games.

Soyud led the charge for the undermanned Fuel Masters in the tense, down-to-the-wire fight that was hosted by Arena Plus and supported by Bingo Plus. In his greatest performance since joining Phoenix last January, Soyud poured in 25 points on a near-perfect 11-of-12 field goal shooting performance in addition to 13 rebounds.

A follow-up to Phoenix’s initial 106 to 101 shock against San Miguel Beer was achieved because of Soyud’s crucial putback after a miss by Sean Manganti, which ended an 88-all tie and kicked off a 12 to 5 final blitz.

We only have 9 players, therefore the coach told us, Jamike Jarin, that we had to give it everything we had.

The Fuel Masters performed exactly that. Young big man Larry Muyang produced a second straight double-double with his 13 to 12, while Tyler Tio shot 10 and RR Garcia contributed 15 with five assists, Manganti had 12 and 7, and Manganti had 12 and seven.

Following an injury sustained in the prior game versus SMB, Simon Camacho, the 10th player in uniform, played for just 1.9 seconds.

After being given a flagrant foul penalty for taking a fighting stance during a heated exchange with Meralco’s Raymar Jose, who received the identical call, Soyud was forced to sit out the final 8.9 seconds of the game.

In their post-game handshake, the two reconciled and even engaged in light joking.

Soyud remarked, “It’s nothing, the game is simply stressful.

Anjo Caram scored a game-high 22 points, and Bong Quinto added 10 points and 11 assists for Meralco, which fell to 1 to 1. Allein Maliksi, the star of the Bolts’ 97 to 89 victory over NorthPort in their season opener, was out with a painful heel and joined Chris Newsome, Chris Banchero, and Aaron Black in the injury room.