Beermen snatch finals seat, send Kings packing

San Miguel Beer secured a ticket to the finals after beating Barangay Ginebra, 100-93, in Game 7 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Veteran guard Chris Ross and big man June Mar Fajardo keyed in the Beermen’s fourth quarter rally for a return to the championship after missing the final stage of the first two conferences of Season 49.

San Miguel closed the best-of-seven series, 4-3.

San Miguel will get a shot at spoiling the grand slam bid of TNT in the best-of-seven championship starting Sunday at the same venue.  

Ross scored 10 of his 19 points in the final canto while eight-time Most Valuable Player Fajardo had a double-double of 21 markers and 19 rebounds as the Beermen barged in the finale for the first time since losing the all-Filipino conference crown to Meralco last year.

San Miguel will meet the Tropang 5G in the finals for the first time since the 2022-2023 Philippine Cup.

The Beermen erased an 11-point hole in the third quarter, 62-73, with 1:36 left in the period, mounting a blistering 19-4 run capped by a Jericho Cruz breakaway layup to take an 81-77 advantage with 7:58 left in the fourth quarter.        

“It’s very clear they never gave up, especially in the third quarter, we were down by 10 points and we’re able to score 100. That’s huge for us. The mindset of the players is really positive,” San Miguel head coach Leo Austria said.

The Beermen fended off the Kings’ repeated attempts to fight back before closing the sudden death witnessed by a 12,279-strong crowd with a 7-4 run.

CJ Perez got 15 points while Mo Tautuaa and Don Trollano had 14 and 10 points, respectively, for San Miguel, which has not yet lost back-to-back games in the playoffs.

Ginebra’s 16 turnovers including crucial ones late in the fourth did the team in, falling short of a finals return after back-to-back runner-up finishes to TNT.

Jamie Malonzo got 22 points, Scottie Thompson and RJ Abarrientos had 16 markers each while Troy Rosario finished with 15. Stephen Holt and Japeth Aguilar had 12 points each for the Kings, who forced a decider with a close-shaved win in Game 6 last Sunday.

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL (100) --- Fajardo 21, Ross 19, Perez 15, Tautuaa 14, Trollano 10, Tiongson 6, Brondial 6, Lassiter 5, Cruz 4

GINEBRA (93) --- Malonzo 22, Thompson 16, Abarrientos 16, Rosario 15, Holt 12, J.Aguilar 12, David 0, Ahanmisi 0, Tenorio 0

Quarterscores: 17-23, 45-44, 66-73, 100-93