San Miguel Beer stayed hot as it posted an 83-81 victory over Barangay Ginebra in the Philippine Basketball Association 50th Season Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
June Mar Fajardo fired 17 points and 16 rebounds in the victory where the Beermen erected a lead as many as 14 points to turn back the Kings in front of a large crowd composed of Filipino expatriates.
Also making a notable contribution was JM Calma, who had 10 points and nine rebounds to power Beermen to their second win in four matches.
Barangay Ginebra nearly stole the game from San Miguel when Troy Rosario picked off the inbound pass from Kris Rosales with 2.7 seconds left. But the Kings ran out of time as Scottie Thompson misfired a four-point attempt on the final possession.
The Kings have now lost two in a row in Dubai after being defeated by NLEX last 6 October 2019 in double overtime, 113-111.
Japeth Aguilar had 20 points and 12 rebounds for Kings, who suffered their second straight game to go down to 1-3.