Beermen 1 away from PBA title

San Miguel Beer moved on the cusp of annexing the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup title after beating TNT, 105-91, in Game 4 of their best-of-seven finals for a 3-1 series lead Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Jericho Cruz came off the bench and fueled the Beermen’s huge 41-point fourth-quarter explosion to pull away from the Tropang 5G for their third straight victory in the series.

Cruz nailed three triples in San Miguel’s decisive payoff-period blast as he finished with 23 points on an efficient 6-of-10 shooting from the field.

The Beermen will go for the jugular in Game 5 on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I think the biggest impact is our first game,” San Miguel head coach Leo Austria said of what lit a fire under his wards.

The Beermen dropped a controversial series opener last week. “It fueled our grit. You can see the fire in our players’ eyes. They really wanted to win,” Austria added.

CJ Perez had 16 points, newly crowned Best Player of the Conference June Mar Fajardo had a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Don Trollano and Marcio Lassiter added 11 and 10 markers, respectively, for the Beermen, who trailed 70-69 with 10:21 left in the fourth before exploding.

TNT stormed back to life in the second half behind Jordan Heading’s hot hands as he nailed three triples in the team’s 30-19 third-quarter output.

The Tropang 5G used a 17-2 barrage to end the third quarter, capped by Heading sinking a triple despite Rodney Brondial’s arm all over his face with four seconds left. The Tropang 5G entered the final period up 67-64.

Jeron Teng provided the offensive spark in the second quarter, scoring six as San Miguel outscored TNT, 24-14.

The Beermen shot better from the field in the second canto compared to the first 12 minutes of the game, for a 45-37 advantage going into the intermission.