Beermen eye 2nd berth vs Dragons

Manila, Philippines -  San Miguel Beer hopes to dish out its best form before hometown crowd as it goes for the other finals berth in the third AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League crown against Westport Malaysia at the Ynares Sports Arena today.

The Beermen, who topped the elims, took the opener of their best-of-three series with a tough 111-104 overtime victory over the Dragons in Sucat. But the latter struck back at home, scoring a runaway 100-77 rout to force the sudden death.

Gametime is set at 4 p.m. with the Beermen confident of their chances with the full support of the hometown crowd.

The Indonesia Warriors took the first finals seat by beating inaugural champions AirAsia Philippine Patriots in their own side of the Final Four.

“We are carrying the country’s hopes in this fight for the finals berth so I ask all Filipino basketball fans to go out and cheer for the team,” said SMB coach Bobby Parks Sr.

He added that it’s imperative to make adjustments defensively, especially with the Dragons averaging a high 102 points in the series, and offensively, since SMB imports Duke Crews and Nick Fazekas were limited to just a combined 27 points in Game 2. 

“In Nick’s part, it is more of an off-night. For Duke, there are shots that just roll out of the rim. We really need big games from them since imports will decide this series. Although we have a deep bench, only three locals play at a time so the imports will be a big factor,” Parks said, also calling out Chris Banchero, Leo Avenido and Roger Yap.   

Dragons’ Pinoy coach Ariel Vanguardia’s primary strategy is simple. 

“If we limit Crews and Fazekas, I think we’ll put ourselves in a good position again,” said coach Vanguardia, encouraging his crew to tighthen their defense once more and can keep the Beermen below 80 points overall.

Vanguardia is also hoping Phl import Patrick Cabahug, who’s been norming 20.5 points in the series, sustain his hot shooting while Nic Belasco and Chris Pacana continue to provide support.