THE powerhouse San Miguel Beer of old showed up in a time of need and swamped NorthPort, 126-91, Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo to clinch the top seeding in the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals.
Despite limited minutes, CJ Perez still led the 29-time champion Beermen's all-out assault that gained more steam as the game wore on, typified by as much as a 111-74 lead before the wire-to-wire win was completed.
With an 8-3 record to end the elimination round, SMB wound up in a tie at the top with NLEX and Magnolia but claimed the No. 1 billing due to a superior quotient in the tiebreak.
The win also prevented the Beermen's relegation to as low as No. 5 and gave them a win-once advantage in a quarterfinals duel with No. 8 Meralco on Wednesday.
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"I think the desperation that we have," said SMB coach Leo Austria in summarizing the reason for the fire displayed by his charges in their continuing quest for atonement after missing the playoffs of the mid-season Commissioner's Cup.
"This game is very important for us. A win would get us to the top four and if we lose and (Barangay) Ginebra wins we'll get No. 5," added Austria.
"So we treated this game as the start of a best-of-three. Nakaisa na kami and we need one game in the quarterfinals to get to the semifinals."
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Perez notched 24 points and five rebounds to lead SMB with 11 of his points coming in the opening quarter when the team started widening its separation over NorthPort.
Jericho Cruz and Don Trollano each had 17 for the Beermen, which had three other players scoring at least 10 points apiece, including June Mar Fajardo who also hauled down 11 rebounds.
The loss dropped NorthPort to a 2-9 slate and 11th place as it is now left to look forward to the next season where it hopes to revitalize a squad that topped the Commissioner's Cup eliminations and made it as far as the semifinals before going through some major overhaul.
Joshua Munzon notched 19 points and Cade Flores 13 points on top of 12 rebounds to lead the Batang Pier, who only managed to tie the count at 6-all before getting overwhelmed by the Beermen's charge.(NC)
The Scores :
SAN MIGUEL 126 - Perez 24, Cruz 17, Trollano 17, Tautuaa 14, Fajardo 10, Lassiter 10, Teng 9, Brondial 8, Tiongson 7, Cahilig 3, Rosales 2, Calma 2, Ross 0.
NORTHPORT 91 - Munzon 19, Flores 13, Balanza 11, Yu 11, Taha 9, Abueva 5, Nelle 5, Cuntapay 5, Bulanadi 5, Kwekuteye 5, Onwubere 3, Nava 0.
QUARTERS: 25-16, 57-38, 92-67, 126-91
