Ginebra draws semis first blood, halts streaking San Miguel

Barangay Ginebra floored the gas pedal for a strong fourth quarter showing to beat defending champion San Miguel Beer, 99-90, in Game 1 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinals on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Kings poured 27 points in the final canto and shackled the Beermen to just 17 markers to take a step closer to the biggest stage.

Game 2 is on Wednesday.

RJ Abarrientos led Ginebra with 23 points with seven assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Scottie Thompson had 22 markers on 8-of-13 shooting from the field while Ralph Cu and Jayson David added 13 and 10 points, respectively, for the Kings, who extended their winning run to eight while putting a halt to San Miguel’s 10-game romp.

The Beermen was up by a single point heading into the fourth quarter.

Timely triples from Cu and Norbert Torres fueled Ginebra’s rally before Troy Rosario scored on an easy layup for a 93-85 Kings lead with 3:11 remaining in the game.

Thompson sank the dagger layup in the last 47 ticks for a 99-88 advantage.        

San Miguel saw the 27-point, 23-rebound performance of big man June Mar Fajardo go to waste. CJ Perez and Marcio Lassiter had 18 and 12 markers, respecrtively.