By Jay R. Gotera
MANILA — The San Miguel Beermen assured themselves the top spot in the quarterfinals with a 106-100 victory over the GlobalPort Batang Pier in the PBA Philippine Cup road game in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu on Saturday night.
It was the defending champions’ eighth straight win and ninth overall against just a single loss.
GlobalPort slipped into a 5-4 win-loss card, joining four other teams — Ginebra, TNT, Rain or Shine and Phoenix — into a tie for second to sixth place. Any of those five squads could bag the second seeding, which carries the twice-to-beat advantage, just like the top seed, in the quarterfinals.
SMB and GlobalPort slugged it out toe-to-toe in the first three quarters before the Beermen unleashed their full firepower in the final period to finally vanquish their rivals.
Arwind Santos was the most explosive Beerman for the night, banging in 31 points, including seven points in the final 90 seconds that all but shot down GlobalPort’s hopes of stealing a win. The former MVP also collected 10 boards.
Marcio Lassiter also caught fire, finishing with 22 points and six boards. June Mar Fajardo did not disappoint his province mates, tallying a big double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds on top of two blocks. Brian Heruela, also a Cebu native, also drew cheers from the hometown crowd as he started in place of flu-stricken Alex Cabagnot. He repaid his coach’s trust by scoring a personal conference-high 10 points all in the first half.
Stanley Pringle paced GlobalPort, finishing with 21 points on an efficient 9-of-13 shooting, including a coast-to-coast drive that cut SMB’s lead to just a basket, 97-95, with two minutes left. The Beermen, however, responded with four straight points, all courtesy of Santos, to finish off the Batang Pier.
Conference top scorer Terrence Romeo, playing in his father’s hometown, was limited to just 16 points on a subpar 4-of-14 shooting — below his average of 27.6 points per game. Romeo also had nine assists before fouling out after 30 minutes of play.
KG Canaleta added 14 points while Mike Cortez and Aaron Aban chipped in 11 and 10 markers, respectively.
JR Quinahan, another Cebu native, also played well for GlobalPort, finishing with nine points, 11 boards, seven assists, and two blocks in 29 minutes off the bench.
Games on Sunday: Alaska Aces (4-4) vs. Mahindra Floodbuster (2-6) and Barangay Ginebra Kings (5-4) vs. Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters (5-4)
