More experienced Phoenix comes out of tough series vs San Miguel

MANILA, Philippines—After all the fireworks, fines, and feuds, the semifinals series between San Miguel and Phoenix in the PBA Philippine Cup finally drew to a close.

The Beermen closed out the series with a 105-94 Game 5 win and advanced to their fifth straight championship series in the All-Filipino conference.

The Fuel Masters, meanwhile, are heading into the next conference with a wealth of experience having gone toe to toe with the league’s most successful club in their first time in the semifinals.

“I said earlier that it looks like we got a big bonus, not in the financial sense, but for the experience that we can bring for the upcoming conference,” said Phoenix head coach Louie Alas in Filipino on Thursday.

“We came up short, we learned things.”

Alas is hoping his team, which finished top in the elimination round, could capitalize on its best finish so far and make a deeper run than the semifinals in the coming conferences.

“Our fortitude should be like this moving forward because once you set a goal it shouldn’t be lower than what you just did,” said Alas. “You should at least what you just did or surpass it.”

The Fuel Masters will have foreign reinforcement Rob Dozier, a former Alaska import, to help them achieve their new goal.

Dozier, who stands at 6-foot-9, was the 60th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft but wasn’t able to play in the league instead playing in Europe for much of his professional career.

“Our import is set to arrive [on May 9] and I hope he’s in condition and all to help us in our weakness which is the paint,” said Alas, whose tallest players are 6-foot-5 big men Justin Chua and Dave Marcelo, both of whom are smaller than San Miguel’s giant June Mar Fajardo who stands at 6-foot-10.