San Miguel sends series to the limit

PBA IMAGES

SAN MIGUEL Beer played so well without letup all night and made Barangay Ginebra say die for a change.

Breaking away in the second quarter, the Beermen led by as many as 33 points on the way to spilling the Gin Kings all over the place, 101-72, and taking a huge psychological edge going into their winner-take-all match in the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series.

In front of the season-closing conference’s biggest crowd of just over 22,000 at Smart Araneta Coliseum last night, San Miguel made Ginebra look so bad as Gin Kings’ coach Tim Cone played with his second stringers practically the whole of the fourth period to keep them fresh.

In contrast, Leo Austria waited only until the final three minutes—and with the Kings already beaten to a pulp—to recall his starters and keep them sharp for Game 5, slated at 7 p.m. tomorrow, also at the historic Big Dome.

Marcio Lassiter scored 11 straight points to open the second frame and the San Miguel defense held the Kings scoreless for the first eight minutes—and to just seven the entire period— to start the rout.

“When [Cone] saw that [we already had a big lead], he did not play his key players [in the fourth quarter],” Austria told reporters. “That means he is already preparing for the next game. I’m sure it will be a different ballgame for them [in the rubber match].”

It was a ploy that Austria refused to fall into, knowing the character of the Kings.

“You can never be sure of what will happen; they can come back and we know that,” Austria said when asked why he kept his aces on the floor even with an insurmountable lead. “I know coach Tim in that kind of a situation.”

“Game 3 was fun. Today was absolutely not,” Cone said, though he dismissed the blowout as just a loss. “They just beat us up, we just couldn’t match up.”

Cone said he had an inkling that his Kings were mentally drained after a 97-96 Game 3 win on Friday night.

Lassiter finished with 25 points on 7-of-9 shooting from three-point range to lead the Beermen, who drew twin digits from four others, counting June Mar Fajardo’s 17 points and 16 boards and Elijah Millsap’s 13 and 17.

Meanwhile, Meralco guns for one more win against TNT KaTropa at 7 p.m. tonight, also at the Big Dome, to complete one of the most compelling turnarounds in the PBA.

“I keep reminding the players that we have come a long way; we were at the bottom [early in the season],” Meralco coach Norman Black said. “We were at 1-10 in the [Philippine Cup] and all I can do is look back at that.”

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL 101—Lassiter 25, Fajardo 17, Cabagnot 13, Millsap 13, Santos 13, Ross 9, Arana 3, De Ocampo 2, Espinas 2, Heruela 2, Mabulac 2, David 0, Reyes 0, Semerad 0, Tubid 0.

GINEBRA 72—Brownlee 28, Tenorio 17, Devance 6, Cruz 5, Caguioa 4, Marcelo 4, Helterbrand 3, Bonifacio 2, Salva 2, Aguilar 1, Mariano 0, Mercado 0, Thompson 0.

Quarters: 30-22, 55-29, 82-52, 101-72