Beermen destroy Kings in Game 1

There was a telling sequence in the third quarter where Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter and June Mar Fajardo—with San Miguel Beer irreversibly in the lead—all converged on Ginebra guard LA Tenorio, who thought he’d finally found a slight gap in the Beermen’s defense on an inbound play early.

The sight of the three stars chasing down what looked like a clean getaway and eventually thwarting the shot characterized the Beermen’s dominance of Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup Friday night at Mall of Asia Arena.

Firing on all cylinders early and relentless on defense all night, the Beermen sent out a strong statement with a 109-82 pulverizing of the Gin Kings in the opening game of a series that was tipped to go the distance.

The performance left even San Miguel coach Leo Austria surprised.

“I really don’t know what happened because I didn’t expect this kind of game; [it was] one-sided since the first quarter,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria. “My players had fire in their eyes because they knew how important Game 1 was.”

San Miguel raced to an early double-digit lead, 33-9, before their reserves put away the Gin Kings, who were sluggish and tentative just three days after surviving a grueling best-of-seven series against the Star Hotshots.

“We were horrible from the start to finish,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone. “That was all on me. But it’s one game and it’s a seven-game series. We’ll just put it away and move on.”

The Beermen found their range early on, hitting 12 of their first 18 shots with Alex Cabagnot firing 11 of his 16 points and Chris Ross hitting eight points, mostly in transition, in the first quarter.

The Gin Kings didn’t seem like it had the legs to cope with San Miguel’s firepower. June Mar Fajardo had a quiet outing with 17 points and eight rebounds, but he didn’t need to assert himself.

By the end of the third period, Tenorio, Sol Mercado, Japeth Aguilar and Joe Devance were all on the bench as the Gin Kings were left to search for answers for Game 2 on Sunday.

Tenorio was held to five points on 2-of-8 shooting, while Mercado ended up with two. Aguilar groped for form against Fajardo, going 1-for-10 for just five points in 14 minutes.