Beermen seek 2nd win vs Indon Warriors

Game today (Ynares Sports Arena)

3 p.m. – San Miguel Beermen vs Indonesia Warriors

MANILA, Philippines - Although they looked solid in a 75-60 victory over Indonesia Warriors in the opener of the 2013 Asean Basketball League finals, San Miguel Beermen know fully well they can’t afford to ease up and start thinking it would be easy sailing from here on.

“I think all games in this series will be very close. We have to continue to work hard and improve our defense because that would be the key,” said Beermen coach Leo Austria, whose wards held the Warriors to a 26-of-70 (37 percent) clip in Friday night’s Game One win.

“I’m pretty happy with our defense but there’s still work to be done. There were some lapses, especially in defending against Indonesia’s inbounds play. I think they got three baskets out of the inbounds play and we have to look on that,” he added.

The Beermen seek to seize a commanding 2-0 lead today in Game Two of the duel at Ynares Sports Arena before the series swings to Jakarta for Game Three and if necessary Game Four.

San Miguel found a lot of heroes in drawing first blood against the defending champions.

Ageless Asi Taulava pounded on his defenders with 22 points, including two clutch buckets down the stretch, while collaring 10 rebounds, as he and the two imports outworked the frontliners of Indonesia.  Justin Williams only accounted for six points but had seven blocks and three rebounds while Brian Williams made two markers and grabbed nine boards against Steven Thomas (20-17) and Chris Daniels (14-7).

“We have the advantage in the frontline. They only have two imports while we have Asi, who’s like a third import. The good thing about our import is that even if they don’t score much, they contribute in other things. Justin Williams, for example, is really giving us a lot of advantage (with his blocking ability). This is something we should continue to exploit,” Austria said.

SMB also got a huge lift from Val Acuña, who came off the bench to fire 13 points, his outside sniping energizing the Beermen in swinging the momentum to their side in the second period after the Warriors took an early eight-point lead.

Austria also credited their concerted efforts to limit Stanley Pringle to six points in the second half. He finished with 15 points on 7-of-18 shooting.

“It’s a given that Pringle will score at any given time. But we did a good job containing him with our team defense,” he said.

Warriors coach Todd Purves felt his wards played well, if not for their sloppy shooting from beyond the arc (4-of-21 or 19 percent, versus San Miguel’s 5-of-11 or 44 percent marksmanship). Yesterday, one of their main focuses during practice was getting their three-point shooting up.