Slammers forge semis duel with Beermen

MANILA, Philippines - Top seed San Miguel Beer will face Sports Rev Thailand in the semifinals of the Asean Basketball League.

This after the Slammers’ rivals for the fourth and last semis berth, the Jobstreet.com Singapore Slingers, suffered a 53-63 setback to defending champion Indonesia Warriors Tuesday night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to finish the elims with 7-15.

The Slingers’ loss handed the Slammers (7-14) the No. 4 spot, regardless of the result of the Thai team’s final elims outing against Saigon Heat last night. Even if they finish with a similar 7-15 card, the Slammers will still catch the last bus to the Final Four owing to their edge in head-to-head versus Singapore, 3-2.

San Miguel Beer (18-3) will wind up its campaign in the preliminaries against Westports Malaysia Dragons tomorrow at MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, hoping to cop their 16th straight win before heading to the playoffs.

As No. 1 seed, the Beermen will enjoy homecourt advantage the entire post-season.

They will host the Slammers at the Ynares Sports Arena in the semis opener on May 23 and Game Two on May 25 before going to the Slammers’ turf (Nimibutr Stadium) for Game Three on May 28 and, if needed, Game Four on May 28. SMB will get back home court edge if the series reaches a deciding Game Five on June 3.

The Beermen of coach Leo Austria had swept their four encounters with the Slammers of coach Joe Bryant, 77-73 and 78-70 in Thailand and 78-61 and 76-69 in Manila, making the streaking Pinoy team the heavy favorites to prevail and go all the way to the finals.