A year ago, Meralco guard Chris Newsome broke the heart of San Miguel Beer with a cold-blooded go-ahead jumper in the waning seconds of Game 6 for the Philippine Cup finals clincher.
This time, the twice-to-beat top-seeded Beermen have a chance to return the favor and dethrone the Bolts in their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup quarterfinals clash today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The rematch of the protagonists of last season’s championship is set at 5 p.m. before win-once Barangay Ginebra meets Converge at 7:30 p.m. for the main game.
San Miguel is dead set on taking advantage of its playoffs incentive to atone for an embarrassing early exit in the Commissioner’s Cup and remain on track to reclaim the title it last held in 2022.
The Beermen behind CJ Perez’s 24 points walloped NorthPort, 126-91, last Sunday for an 8-3 elimination round finish to get the No. 1 seed.
“We’re the top seed right now but it doesn’t matter because all teams have improved. Last conference San Miguel was in an unfamiliar situation of being out of the playoffs. We were all disappointed, especially the management. So, what we’re doing now is to remain focused on getting in the Top Four, slowly working our way to the playoffs until we reach the finals, hopefully,” Perez said.
The high-scoring combo-guard has emphasized the need for the Beermen to match Meralco’s energy and neutralize its strength on open court.
“They have a good system and we also need to match their energy. We have to focus on defense and I think offense will come once we defend well,” he said.
“Protecting the ball, running in transition defense, those are the things we need to improve on since we also know Meralco loves to run also,” Perez added.
The Bolts, on the other hand, are in survival mode with their lone title in the PBA at stake.
Meralco will have to deal not only with Perez but also against star center June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Don Trollano and Jericho Cruz.
“We’re ready,” defiant Bolts coach Luigi Trillo said.
“We’ve been here a lot of times, so I think we’d really respond well in this first game. But you have to get to one before you get to two.”
However, San Miguel still has the advantage in their conference head-to-head after beating Meralco, 110-98, in the elimination round last 9 April.
Newsome will rely on Cliff Hodge, Aaron Black, Chris Banchero, Bong Quinto and Raymond Almazan to get things done and live to fight another day.
Meanwhile, the Kings hope their 19-point blowout of the FiberXers in their elims meeting in Pampanga will carry over as they look to make a quick entry to the best-of-seven semifinals.
“Bottomline is we’re just going to prepare ourselves and try to go out and just win one game. That’s really, we’re thinking about, one game, not twice-to-beat. We’re just thinking about one game and winning that,” Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said.