Beermen cruise to 9-0

Who will stop the rampaging San Miguel Beer?

Definitely not an NLEX team missing its leading scorer.

The Beermen extended their unbeaten run to nine straight as the defending champions pounded the Road Warriors, 120-103, to move closer to a rare elimination round sweep of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Sunday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

San Miguel tore apart skidding NLEX, which played without late scratch Robert Bolick due to the birth of his son, for its first victory over the only team it has not beaten until now this season.

Only Blackwater and Meralco stand in the way of the Beermen’s perfect elims run.

“If we play the same way we’ve been playing for the first nine games then it wouldn’t be a bother for me or for us. As long as we play hard for 48 minutes and know our roles, we’ll be OK,” San Miguel Beer coach Jorge Gallent said. 

June Mar Fajardo put up another monster performance with a double-double of 20 points and 21 rebounds as the already twice-to-beat Beermen secured the playoffs top seeding for the second straight all-Filipino conference.        

CJ Perez had another solid performance with 30 points on 7-of-16 field goal shooting and grabbed nine rebounds while Terrence Romeo and Jericho Cruz finished with 15 markers each for San Miguel Beer, which built a 19-point lead and had an answer each time NLEX made a spurt.

Marcio Lassiter and Don Trollano added 14 points apiece for the Beermen.

The Road Warriors dropped their third game in a row that pulled them down to a 5-4 mark tied with TNT and Magnolia.

Enoch Valdez got 18 points and eight rebounds to pace NLEX. Matt Nieto had 14 markers while Sean Anthony and Rob Herndon produced 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Box scores:

SAN MIGUEL (120) --– Perez 30, Fajardo 20, Romeo 15, Cruz 15, Lassiter 14, Trollano 14, Enciso 6, Brondial 4, Teng 2, Tautuaa 0, Ross 0

NLEX (103) --– Valdez 18, Nermal 16, Nieto 14, Anthony 12, Herndon 11, Rodger 8, Miranda 7, Semerad 7, Fajardo 4, Amer 2, Taha 2

Quarters: 25-15, 50-41, 83-71, 120-103