SMB SECURES QUARTERS BONUS
San Miguel Beer made an amazing effort to dig out of a deep 18-point hole in the fourth quarter, carving out a stirring 93-85 victory over Air21 to clinch second spot in the coming PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Kevin Jones, June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross worked on a terrific closing quarter for the Beermen who went on to secure a twice-to-beat bonus in the quarterfinals.
The Beermen floundered in the third period but made a big turnaround in the payoff quarter to finish the elims with a second-best 7-2 win-loss record.
As the top two seeds, Talk n Text and San Miguel Beer will enjoy twice-to-beat advantage versus the eighth seed and the seventh-ranked squad in the Final 8.
With the win, San Miguel Beer dashed Alaska’s hopes to force a playoff for second spot.
Air21 wound up with a 3-6 card, leaving San Mig Coffee (4-4), Rain or Shine (4-4) and Barangay Ginebra (3-5) to slug it out for the two remaining berths in the best-of-three quarterfinals (No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 against No. 5).
With an inferior quotient, the Express were actually out of the race even before the game.
Playing without pressure, the Express played well in the first three quarters, pulling away at 72-55 with a big breakthrough in the third.
They stretched their lead to 18 at the start of the fourth, but then suddenly ran into a maze of errors, allowing the Beermen to regroup and get back into the game.
The Beermen got into great groove at the finish, thus, getting away with a 26-point turnaround from an 18-point deficit.
Still staring at a double-digit deficit at 66-76, the Beermen unleashed a back-breaking 19-2 attack to race ahead, 85-78, entering the final minute.
“We really struggled. We had great looks but we missed shots that we usually make. Our guys just hung in there until our shots came,” said SMB consultant Todd Purves.
Jones nailed a trey that finally put SMB on top at 80-78 with 3:56 to go.
Then Santos and Ross stepped up their game even more as San Miguel won the game with plenty to spare.
The two teams engaged in a defensive battle early on with Air21 taking the half at 39-35.
Then came the Express attack that gave Air21 the 72-55 spread that the team squandered in the end. (SB)
SAN MIGUEL BEER 93 – Jones 19, Santos 18, Lassiter 17, Fajardo 15, Ross 9, Maierhofer 5, Tubid 4, Hubalde 4, Kramer 2, Lanete 0, Lutz 0.
AIR21 85 – Witherspoon 27, Anthony 14, Camson 12, Taulava 9, Yeo 7, Cardona 7, Poligrates 4, Villanueva 2, Ramos 2, Burtscher 1, Borboran 0.
Quarterscores: 19-16, 35-39, 55-72, 93-85
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