Beermen draw first blood, blast Texters

SAN MIGUEL Beer’s Arwind Santos (right) thwarts Talk ‘N Text’s Jay Washington in last night’s game still being played at press time. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

SAN MIGUEL Beer came out of a nine-day break with no traces of rust, making Talk ‘N Text look bad in a 109-86 victory for a 1-0 lead in their PBA Philippine Cup Final Four at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay last night.

The Beermen closed out the second period with a 19-2 run, turning what had been a tied game at 34 into a comfortable buffer.

San Miguel went on to open up leads of as huge as 30 points several times, the first at the 4:07 mark of the third courtesy of new recruit Alex Cabagnot’s three-pointer for 74-44.

Former MVP Arwind Santos scored 10 of his 21 points in the breakaway second period and June Mr Fajardo did his damage on the Talk ‘N Text defense with 13 of his 23 in the third.

“I was really nervous before the game, also excited, because this is my first game in the semis,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria, who took over at the start of the season, said.

“This is just one game, even if we beat them by 30 or whatever, this is just one game. I’m sure they will bounce back,” he said.

Fajardo also plucked down 10 rebounds and Santos had eight as San Miguel dominated almost every department of the lopsided contest where the Texters’ performance was a huge dip compared to the way they played against Ginebra in the quarterfinals.

Cabagnot finished with 13 points and Marcio Lassiter 10 even as Ranidel De Ocampo paced the Texters with 20 points.

Talk ‘N Text started out hot with De Ocampo shooting 11 in the first period for a 27-20 lead.

Game 2 of this best-of-seven series is set tomorrow also at MOA Arena.

The winner will advance to face the survivor of the Alaska-Rain or Shine setto, which the Aces lead, 1-0, after an 87-80 victory on Thursday.

Alaska will be gunning to make it two straight at 5 p.m. today and deal the Elasto Painters back-to-back losses for the first time in the tournament.

Rain or Shine saw its seven-game winning streak come to a halt in their series-opener.

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL BEER 109—Fajardo 23, Santos 21, Cabagnot 13, Lassiter 10, Lutz 7, Tubid 7, Pascual 6, Kramer 5, Semerad 5, Fortuna 4, Omolon 4, Maierhofer 2, Chua 2, Ross 0.

TALK ‘N TEXT 86—De Ocampo 20, Seigle 16, Washington 9, Alapag 7, Rosser 7, Castro 6, Alas 5, Espiritu 5, Williams 4, Carey 3, Fonacier 3, Reyes R.J. 1, Reyes R. 0, Aban 0.

Quarters: 20-27, 53-36, 81-56, 109-86