Beermen seize top four, push Painters to the brink

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San Miguel Beer sealed its spot in the top four after compounding Rain or Shine’s woes with an 82-75 win in the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup Saturday night at Mall of Asia Arena.

Michael Singletary played through a viral infection and came away with 23 points and 12 rebounds while Arwind Santos added 20 points, nine rebounds and four blocks for the Beermen, who assured themselves of a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals after posting their seventh win in 10 stints.

“We know the importance of this game. At the start, I was a little bit worried because Singletary did not practice yesterday (Friday) and Cabagnot did not practice for the last three days,” said SMB head coach Leo Austria, referring to his starting guard Alex Cabagnot, who was sidelined due to a viral infection.

San Miguel finished the game on a 6-1 run as it held ROS to without a field goal since Maverick Ahanmisi’s layup pulled the Elasto Painters within two, 76-74, with 3:11 remaining.

The Elasto Painters paraded their third import this conference in Josh Dollard but not even the comebacking PBA reinforcement could help the team overcome its woes.

Dollard led ROS with 18 points, but struggled with a 7-of-17 shooting clip from the field as the Painters moved on the brink of elimination with a 4-6 record.

The Painters’ usual hitters couldn’t were as close to non-factors with Paul Lee scoring just two points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field, Jeff Chan going scoreless in 19 minutes.

As a team, Rain or Shine made just 34% of its shots and missed 10 of its 22 attempts from the free throw line.