Hubalde, Asi carry Beermen to ABL Finals

MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Beermen used a big second half to run away with a 77-61 win over Rev Sports Thailand Slammers to wrap up their semifinal series in four games and earned another crack at defending champion Indonesia Warriors in the Asean Basketball League Finals.

With a pack of Filipino supporters cheering them inside the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok City, the Beermen turned their switch on in the third quarter to pull away for good.

Paulo Hubalde picked up from where he left off in the second canto conspiring with Leo Avenido in a rousing 14-5 start for the Beermen, who transformed a close 33-30 halftime lead to a dozen, 47-35.  

The Beermen pounced on the Slammers, who looked lost when one of their imports Darrius Brannon limped out with a knee injury in the opening minutes of the third period.  Thailand never seriously threatened from there as they failed to break the eight-point barrier.

Hubalde led the Beermen with 16 points and five dimes as Fil-Am hotshot Chris Banchero, who just came back from an injury recently, has struggled again with eight points on just three-of-nine shooting and issued only a single assist.

But Banchero had his own moment when he scored on back-to-back transition plays as San Miguel’s lead ballooned to 16, 67-51, early in the fourth quarter. 

The Slammers head coach Joe Bryant, the father of NBA superstar Kobe, did not even bother to call a timeout at the height of the Beermen’s siege challenging his players to rally on their own.

Thailand was able to cut the lead to 12 but that was the closest they could get as Eric Menk, Avenido and Asi Taulava took turns in clinching the Beermen’s third straight win over the Slammers after dropping the series opener at home.

The 40-year old Taulava was a picture of consistency for the Beermen throughout the game.  The burly center capped off his 15-point effort with an and-one in the closing minutes that drew a big roar from the Filipino crowd.  The former PBA MVP dished out an all-around game lacing up his offensive outburst with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

San Miguel imports Brian Williams and Justin Williams added 10 and six points with nine rebounds each.

“It’s a big relief,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria said in the post-game interview.

“We learned a lot from this series that will only make us stronger. They snapped our winning streak and that served as a wake-up call for us,” added Austria, who was voted as the league’s Coach of the Year.

The Slammers’ 62-60 win in Game One put an end to an amazing 16-game winning streak of the Beermen, the longest in the ABL history. They went on to beat the Slammers by an average 18.3 in the next three games to book a return trip to the finals opposite the defending champion Warriors.

Indonesia swept its way to its first ABL title last year at San Miguel’s expense.

The Beermen are eager to avenge that loss and they are tipped as the favorite having beaten the Warriors thrice this season against a lone loss – a 92-90 overtime thriller – last February.

San Miguel will host the first two games of the best-of-five finals at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig on Friday and Sunday next week.