Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — San Miguel Beer kept the Meralco Bolts at arm’s length from start to finish to take a convincing 102-86 win over Meralco Bolts in their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup quarterfinals at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum on Monday (June 29).
With the win, the Beermen completed the Final Four cast and arranged a best-of-five semifinal clash with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, the former team of San Miguel import Arizona Reid.
Their series begins on Thursday.
Reid and June Mar Fajardo led San Miguel’s charge with 29 and 22 points respectively, while combining for 27 of the team’s 44 rebounds.
Marcio Lassiter, who shot back-to-back three-pointers to propel the breakaway in the fourth period, had 17 points and Arwind Santos added 15 points.
“I didn’t doubt the players when they vowed to win this,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria, whose team lost to Meralco in their first encounter in the quarterfinals to forge Monday’s sudden-death. “Meralco put us in a scary position but we were able to adjust overnight.”
But it wasn’t their offense that keyed the win, according to Austria.
“We gave a lot of easy baskets in the first game, but our defense improved tonight,” he said.
But that defense didn’t completely shut down Meralco import Andre Emmett, who still finished with 28 points on top of 12 rebounds, five assists, and two steals.
However, he got little help from his teammates as only two other Bolts scored in double figures.
Reynel Hugnatan and Gary David chipped in 17 and 16 points, respectively for the Meralco.
