SMB roars to Final 4

San Miguel Beer took another major step towards completing a possible third straight championship as it crushed Mobiline, 82-61, in their Alaxan All-Filipino Cup quarterfinals match-up at the Philsports Arena last night.

San Miguel coach Jong Uichico worked on the nucleus of only seven men and it responded well as the Beermen booked a berth in the Final Four by ousting the Phone Pals in just one game in the quarters.

Dan Seigle, Olsen Racela, Danny Ildefonso and Dwight Lago all scored in double figures, leading the Beermen's relentless assault which proved too tough to handle by the Phone Pals.

On defense, the Beermen enjoyed the luxury of applying a straight single coverage on the ouster of Asi Taulava from the Mobiline lineup, and Uichico said that spelled the big difference as San Miguel scored the rout.

"Thanks to the departure of Asi, dumali ang trabaho namin. Without Asi on the Mobiline lineup, we didn't need to double anymore, and that was the key," said Uichico as his Beermen thundered past the Phone Pals and into the semifinals against either the Alaska Milkmen or the Pop Cola 800s.

Putting up an efficient defensive effort, the Beermen held the Phone Pals to a 33-percent field goal shooting while hitting on a 47-percent clip on their own.

The Beermen also lorded it over the boards with Nick Belasco pulling down 13 and Ildefonso 10 of the team's 53 rebounds to Mobiline's 39.

Boybits Victoria and Freddie Abuda were the two other Beermen who played with a lot of minutes in the game. Rob Duat, Mike Mustre, Art dela Cruz and Jun Carmona checked in the last quarter to help do the finishing touch in their emphatic win.

With the team outplaying Mobiline practically on all fronts, San Miguel broke the game open early at 25-13 and the team never let up as it held a double-digit lead throughout the final half.

While finding a relatively easy time going through the quarters, Uichico however doesn't expect to experience the same in the semifinals against either Alaska and Pop Cola.

"Parehong mahirap kalaban ito kaya masaya na ako kung aabot kami sa finals. We're not thinking of the finals yet since after Alaska or Pop Cola, we'll surely find ourselves pitted against Tanduay," said Uichico. -