Back to square one

San Miguel Beer proved it’s not just an all-June Mar Fajardo show as it displayed collective team effort in a 100-83 Game 2 blowout of Barangay Ginebra to level the best-of-seven Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup semifinals series Friday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Veteran sniper Marcio Lassiter led five other Beermen in double-figure scoring in a balanced offensive outing that cushioned Fajardo’s limited minutes of action due to a right calf injury.

The 6-foot-10 behemoth and leading Best Player of the Conference candidate played for just over 17 minutes with only two points, seven rebounds and two assists under his name.

But San Miguel barely felt the eight-time Most Valuable Player’s load management as Lassiter with his hot shooting night delivered the goods in a strong bounce back from a sorry 71-73 loss in the series opener last Wednesday.

“I’m thankful to my players because they know what the situation is. They know since yesterday when we found out that June Mar would be on managed minutes or depending on my game-time decision, everybody’s thinking that they need to step up,” Beermen coach Leo Austria said.

The two squads dispute the pivotal series lead in Game 3 on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Lassiter finished with 16 on 6-of-8 shooting from the field including 4-of-5 three-point clip. Don Trollano had 14 points, Kris Rosales added 13 points in his first semis action while CJ Perez and Jericho Cruz hit 11 points each.

Mo Tautuaa held his own and filled in for Fajardo underneath with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds for San Miguel, which led by as many as 23 points.

“People would always say that the strength of the team is with June Mar, but we shouldn’t forget that the strength of June Mar is with his teammate. And it was very evident tonight,” Austria added.

Fajardo needed his rest as he was still obviously bothered by the injury he sustained in the last eight minutes of Game 1 where San Miguel squandered an 18-point lead in a low-scoring ball game.

The Beermen dominated the boards, 49-38 and even forced the Kings to commit 13 turnovers they converted into 19 turnover points.

Ginebra only held the lead once at 3-2 before staring at San Miguel’s back the rest of the way.

Philip Cahilig gave the Beermen their biggest lead, 90-67, off a trey with 7:34 left in the final period.

The Kings failed to sustain the momentum of their come-from-behind series opening day win and allowed San Miguel to reach its average scoring output of 100 or more points.

Stephen Holt had 17 points while Jeremiah Gray and Nard Pinto got 10 points each for Ginebra.

Rookie RJ Abarrientos continued to struggle offensively with just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting while Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar combined for only 14 points.

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL (100) --- Lassiter 16, Trollano 14, Rosales 13, Perez 11, Cruz 11, Cahilig 9, Tiongson 8, Brondial 4, Fajardo 2, Calma 2, Teng 0.

GINEBRA (83) --- Holt 17, Gray 10, Pinto 10, Thompson 9, Ahanmisi 9, Abarrientos 7, Rosario 6, J.Aguilar 5, Malonzo 5, David 5, Cu 0, Adamos 0, R.Aguilar 0, Tenoio 0.

Quarters: 26-15, 54-41, 76-61, 100-83.