ANTIPOLO CITY. — Reigning eight-time MVP June Mar Fajardo sat nearly at the end of the San Miguel Beer bench, with a towel wrapped around his big and muscular legs as we watched his team run rings around hapless NorthPort Sunday night.
Pounding their foes to the ground from the get-go, the Beermen dumped the Batang Pier 126-91 and clinched the No. 1 seed and a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals of the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center here.
Don Trollano boomed in a four-pointer that gave SMB a 104-72 bulge with 8:52 remaining that left Fajardo clapping both his hands—but not too excitedly—resigned to the fact they will be tested anew when the Beermen take on the defending champions and No. 8 Meralco Bolts (6-5) in an early finals rematch in the Last Eight.
Meralco prevailed over SMB 4-2 for its breakthrough All-Filipino crown last year.
The Beermen showed fortitude in pulling off the much-needed triumph, according to coach Leo Austria.
“The situation that we had, this game was very important to us. A win will get us to the top four and gain a twice-to-beat advantage. If we lost and Ginebra wins (in the second tiff at press time), we will be at No. 5,” Austria said. “We treated this game as the start of a best-of-3. Nakaisa na kami so we need one more win in the quarterfinals to get into the semifinals.
“The players’ mindset was they really wanted to win and you can see it naman. Outrebounded and outhustled nila ang NorthPort. The key was defense. Alam nila ang sitwasyon na mayroon kami,” he added.
CJ Perez fired a game-high 24 points he paired with five rebounds for SMB while Jericho Cruz chipped in 17 markers, four boards, and four assists.
Trollano, Mo Tautuaa, Fajardo, and Marcio Lassiter also had 17, 14, 10, and 10 points, respectively as the Beermen redeemed themselves from a painful 97-100 loss to Converge last week and ended the eliminations with an 8-3 mark.
NorthPort came off a 113-108 victory over NLEX last week but cannot sustain its charge against a red-hot SMB side and finished the season-ending tourney with a 2-9 slate.
The Beermen came out with guns blazing with a 57-38 spread at the turn that they padded to 92-67 heading into the fourth canto.
A three-point play by Jeron Teng gave SMB its biggest lead at 111-74 at the 7:18 mark of the fourth.
Joshua Munzon tallied 19 points, five boards, and four dimes for the Batang Pier while Cade Flores, Fran Yu, and Jerrick Balanza got 13, 11, and 11 markers, respectively.
For a proud ball club like the Beermen, nothing less than regaining lost glory in their favorite conference is the ultimate goal.
