San Miguel Beer seized the series lead for the first time after beating Barangay Ginebra, 103-92, in the pivotal Game 5 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup semifinals Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Jericho Cruz showed the way off the bench, providing the extra firepower on offense as the Beermen recovered from a bad start and eventually notched back-to-back wins for a commanding 3-2 best-of-seven series lead.
Cruz had 27 points in an efficient 9-of-12 shooting from the field for San Miguel, which is now focused on closing the showdown on Sunday at the same venue.
San Miguel head coach Leo Austria praised his wards’ patience in coming back from 14 points down early in the second canto before keeping the Kings at bay.
“This is our first back-to-back win in the series. It had been win-loss-win-loss for us in the series so I told the boys that Game 5 is really pivotal. Usually, the team that wins in Game 5 has a big chance to advance into the finals,” he said.
“But still, there’s a lot of work to be done. We’re against a never-say-die team. So, we expect them to play with a lot more energy in our next game,” Austria added.
CJ Perez, who sparked the crucial 9-2 blast late in the fourth for the separation, finished with a game-high 31 markers while June Mar Fajardo submitted another double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Beermen. Don Trollano got 11 markers.
Ginebra closed in, 90-88, after a Maverick Ahanmisi basket with 3:54 left in the fourth. San Miguel answered with a telling run to go up, 99-90, capped by a Perez layup with 1:04 left.
The Kings took control of the first quarter until early in the second where they built a 29-15 lead. It wasn’t enough though as the Beermen erased it to enter the half with a 49-44 lead.
Ahanmisi paced Ginebra with 19 points, Scottie Thompson had 14 markers and nine rebounds after grabbing no boards in Game 4, while Jamie Malonzo and Japeth Aguilar had 13 and 12 markers, respectively.
The score:
SAN MIGUEL (103) --- Perez 31, Cruz 27, Fajardo 14, Trollano 11, Tiongson 6, Teng 4, Tautuaa 3, Lassiter 3, Brondial 2, Rosales 2, Ross 0
GINEBRA (92) --– Ahanmisi 19, Thompson 14, Malonzo 13, J.Aguilar 12, Rosario 11, Holt 10, David 7, Abarrientos 6, R.Aguilar 0, Gray 0
Quarter scores: 12-20, 49-44, 74-71, 103-92