SMB shoots for no. 1 in Cebu homecoming for Fajardo, Quinahan

June Mar Fajardo will play before his provincemates, spearheading San Miguel Beer’s first of two cracks at claiming playoff top seeding as they take on scoring machine Terrence Romeo and his GlobalPort teammates in a PBA Philippine Cup Petron Blaze road match at the Hoops Dome in Lapu Lapu City, Cebu Saturday.

With an 8-1 win-loss record, San Miguel is way out on front, needing just one win in its last three games to gain top honors in the one-round-robin elimination phase.

A win over GlobalPort in their 5 p.m. tiff will do it, making the Beermen the playoff top seeds who will enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage versus the eighth-ranked team in the quarterfinal round.

But GlobalPort is as determined as SMB to win the crucial game, withthe Batang Pier in chase of a Top Two finish also for the “win-once”edge in the quarters.

GlobalPort center/forward JR Quinahan is also making a homecoming in his home province, hoping to make it sweet as he tries to help his team nail a sixth win against three losses.

Fajardo and Quinahan are among the finest products of Cebu collegiate basketball, with the former playing for University of Cebu while the latter suited up with the University of Visayas.

GlobalPort’s biggest concern is how to stop Fajardo who is likely to play inspired game before his fellow Cebuanos.

San Miguel is the start of a tough homestretch run for the Batang Pier who will be next up against TNT KaTropa, then Rain or Shine.

The Batang Pier, however, are optimistic especially with the heads-up performances of Romeo, Quinahan, Stanley Pringle, KG Canaleta and Mike Cortez.

The Beermen, meanwhile, have the Texters as final opponent on Jan. 28.

Coach Leo Austria and his troops have pulled away from the pack on seven straight wins.

Other Stories:

Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: count(): Argument #1 ($value) must be of type Countable|array, bool given in /var/www/pba/wp-content/themes/pba/preview.php:311 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/pba/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include() #1 /var/www/pba/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('...') #2 /var/www/pba/index.php(17): require('...') #3 {main} thrown in /var/www/pba/wp-content/themes/pba/preview.php on line 311