San Miguel forges finals clash with TNT

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GAME SUNDAY

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
6 p.m. — SMB vs. TNT

SAN Miguel Beer kept alive its bid to reclaim the pro league’s crown jewel against a hard-fighting Meralco side last night.

Taking to heart the lessons they learned the last time out, the Beermen fashioned a 100-89 victory over the Bolts in Game 7 of their best-of-7 semifinals battle to advance to the Big Dance of the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

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June Mar Fajardo wound up with a game-high 29 points, to go with 14 rebounds, and two assists for SMB, while CJ Perez chipped in 18 markers, four boards, and nine dimes.

Marcio Lassiter also had 16 points and four rebounds, while Vic Manuel added 13 and three for the Beermen, who redeemed themselves from a painful 92-96 loss to Meralco in Game 6 four days ago.

More importantly, SMB returned to the finals of the same import-less tourney for the first time since 2019 where it will take on defending champion TNT in a best-of-7 title showdown.

Game 1 of the race-to-4 series will be on Sunday also at the Big Dome.

“Noong Game 6 alam naman natin na we had a strong start na na-sustain namin after ng first half lamang kami ng 11 points but in the third quarter they (Beermen) thought that it was easy to be beat Meralco,” Beermen coach Leo Austria said.

“Alam natin na their (Bolts) backs were against the wall. They did everything to catch up and it happened. That’s a lesson learned to all the players na kailangang ipakita nila iyong killer instinct,” he added.

SMB took a 45-31 lead at the half that it stretched to as much as 70-47 on a Fajardo layup at the 2:42 mark of the third canto.

The Beermen still enjoyed a 73-54 spread going into the final stanza.

A Cliff Hodge basket shoved the Bolts to within 74-84 with 5:27 remaining, capping a 15-3 blitz but that proved to be Meralco’s most noteworthy stand.

The defeat put to naught the 23-point, eight-rebound effort of Hodge for the Bolts, while Chris Newsome had 14 markers and five caroms.

Aaron Black and Raymoond Almazan also combined for 25 points for Meralco.

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