Beermen rip Batang Pier, near semis

MANILA, Philippines - San Miguel Beer pulled away behind a fiery run in the second quarter and cruised to its most lopsided win so far, trouncing Globalport, 95-69, to close in on an outright semifinal berth in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

Arwind Santos spearheaded their breakaway then Junmar Fajardo, Ronald Tubid, Jeric Fortuna and Ronald Pascual helped sustain the charge before eventually nailing the win that enabled them to regain a share of the lead with the idle Alaska Milk Aces atop the leaderboard at 7-1.

San Miguel coach Leo Austria later said their game against Talk n Text will be crucial in their bid to finish in the Top 2.

“We’re looking at winning three of our last four games and this is a good first step. Next is Meralco, then we have a big obstacle ahead of us in Talk n Text. We’re really preparing for them,” said Austria.

San Miguel’s last game is against winless expansion team Blackwater on Dec. 9.

Rain or Shine recovered in time after blowing a 15-point spread, going to Paul Lee and Beau Belga for the winning plays as the Elasto Painters hacked out a thrilling 95-93 win over the NLEX Road Warriors in the nightcap.

 The E-Painters made their own fightback from a seven-point deficit in the last 2:22 of play as they stretched their streak to four games and improved to 6-2 at third place.

“You can call that a great escape,” said coach Yeng Guiao of their amazing feat, dealing the Road Warriors a fifth loss against three wins.

“That’s a big plus for us, considering the other contenders in Ginebra, Alaska and Rain or Shine will still play one another. They’ll be having a round robin affair,” Austria pointed out.

Santos came through with 11 points in the second quarter and finished with a game-high 19 while Fajardo got away with 17 markers and 13 boards as the Beermen notched a fourth straight win while dealing the Batang Pier a fourth defeat in their last five games.

Globalport slid to 4-5 overall.

“This is the best that we had so far maybe because of our great intention to make the Top Two plus the fact that Globalport was coming off a road trip. They’re not able to have a good preparation for this game,” said Austria.

The Batang Pier were only in the game in the first quarter, falling apart in the second period as the Beermen stepped on the gas and pulled away, 56-29, at the turn.

Pascual and Tubid contributed 12 points each while Maierhofer and Fortuna added 10 apiece as the Beermen fashioned out their biggest rout in the tourney, spiked by an amazing 19-0 run in the second quarter.

Before this game, their most lopsided victory was a 90-74 win over Kia Wednesday. It was actually a close match through the first three periods.

The Beermen sizzled with a 5-of-8 three-pointers and 10-of-20 clip in all while the Batang Pier converted only five of 23 attempts as San Miguel broke loose from a tight 21-17 at the start of the second quarter.

San Miguel was just ahead by six, 29-23, before unloading 19 unanswered points.