Sol Mercado of San Miguel (light) vs Joe Devance of San Mig (dark). PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines—Justin Melton stepped up in the absence of PJ Simon to spark San Mig Coffee’s 97-90 win over San Miguel Beer at the tailend of a back-to-back and advance into the 2014 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals Tuesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Melton brought in the hustle and energy on both ends apart from his 16 points on six-of-night shooting from the field as the Mixers, who clawed back from an early double-digit deficit, booked a semis date with the top-seeded Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.
“We didn’t get the word about PJ until about two hours before the game started when we first heard that when he found out that he can’t even stand up at home so he wasn’t even available to come to the game,” said San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone, who’s attempting a second Grand Slam in his celebrated coaching career after pulling it off with Alaska in 1996.
“It was so shocking because we just had shoot-around this morning and he looked fine there but we didn’t notice he was stretching out his back during practice. So he was starting to feel a little bit there and didn’t tell anybody,” Cone said of Simon, who was sidelined with back spasms. “That was a big blow for us with PJ being so much to the team and that really put us under gun, put a lot of pressure on James (Yap) and Marc (Pingris) to come out and carry us but the guy who really stepped up for was Justin.”
The Mixers got separation midway through the fourth quarter as they led by 10, 93-83, thanks to a 12-2 run with 1:57 left. Marqus Blakely led San Mig Coffee with 25 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks.
Reggie Williams and Arwind Santos had 21 points apiece for the Beermen while June Mar Fajardo posted 16 points and 15 rebounds but couldn’t get touches in the fourth quarter and was held scoreless.
Coming off a 94-95 loss to Rain or Shine just Monday night, San mig Coffee came out flat to start the game and found themselves down by 15 late in the opening period before putting in 30 points in the second quarter to make it a game.