Defending champion San Miguel Beer rolled to a commanding 2-0 series lead over Rain or Shine after a dominating 106-89 win in Game 2 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup semifinals Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

June Mar Fajardo waxed-hot in the third quarter, pouring 18 of his 22 points as the Beermen blew the match wide-open in the second half to inch closer to a second straight championship stint.

San Miguel built a 19-point lead early in the last canto, 92-73, and easily quelled a brief rally by the Elasto Painters, who held a seven-point advantage in the second period only to get blown out for a ninth straight head-to-head loss to the Beermen.

The Beermen kept Rain or Shine from getting its running game going and forced 15 turnovers they converted to 18 turnover points. The Elasto Painters only had seven fastbreak points.

“We just got better getting back on defense. The players really went down well and we were getting good shots that’s why we were able to sprint back down and stop their fastbreak points which was our main concern in Game 1,” San Miguel head coach Jorge Gallent said.

Fajardo pulled down 10 rebounds and had four assists, CJ Perez added 19 markers and 11 boards while Terrence Romeo had 16 points for the Beermen.

Marcio Lassiter reached a milestone after surpassing Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s LA Tenorio by one trey at the No. 3 spot of all-time three-points made with 1,219. Lassiter breached Tenorio’s record in the last 2:15 of the game with a right elbow triple – his third in six attempts – to finish with 13 points.

Don Trollano had 10 points for San Miguel.

Game 3 is on Wednesday at the Dasmarinas Arena.

Anton Assistio paced the Elasto Painters with 20 points on 7-of-13 field goal shooting.

Adrian Nocum had 17 markers while Gian Mamuyac and Keith Datu had 14 and 12 points, respectively, for Rain or Shine.

Box scores:

SAN MIGUEL (106) –-- Fajardo 22, Perez 19, Romeo 16, Lassiter 13, Trollano 10, Ross 9, Cruz 9, Brondial 4, Tautuaa 4, Enciso , Manuel 0, Teng 0

RAIN OR SHINE (89) –-- Asistio 20, Nocum 17, Mamuyac 14, Datu 12, Belga 11, Santillan 5, Caracut 4, Clarito 4, Norwood 2, Paredes 0, Ildefonso 0, Belo 0, Borboran 0

Quiarters: 23-21, 53-45, 88-71, 106-89