Beermen show no mercy for Kings; Barako Bull wins

MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Beer dealt sister-team Ginebra an embarrassing 100-82 defeat last night and moved on top of the leaderboard in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Philsports Arena.

Fans trooped to the old venue hoping to see some great action between two of the league’s most popular teams. In the end, they witnessed a blowout – not a shootout.

The Beermen started to break loose in the third quarter and slowly put the game away in the fourth where they led by as many as 23 points at 94-71 with 3:22 left.

San Miguel hit the century mark on an unmolested layup by Alex Cabagnot with under a minute left. By that time, fans had started to head to the nearest exit.

It was not what most of them anticipated.

“Hindi ko inasahan na ganito ang mangyayari (I did not expect this to happen),” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria inside the press room.

San Miguel notched its fourth win against a single loss while Ginebra took another defeat, its third in four games, under new coach Tim Cone.

The PBA’s winningest coach just couldn’t find the way to win last night.

During a timeout with over nine minutes left and San Miguel ahead at 80-64, Cone stood 15 feet away from the Ginebra huddle, arms crossed on his chest.

JuneMar Fajardo delivered 22 points and 14 rebounds for San Miguel while Arwind Santos had 24 points and a fancy breakaway dunk late in the game.

Big men Japeth Aguilar and Greg Slaughter combined for 42 points and 20 rebounds for Ginebra but stepped out of the court still hungry for a win.

In the first game, Barako Bull kept Meralco in the dark by carving out a 108-106 decision anchored on Willy Wilson’s hot start and Josh Urbiztondo’s strong finish.

Wilson, who can help win games without scoring much, unloaded eight of his 17 points in the first quarter while Urbiztondo had 13 of his 24 points in the final period.

Urbiztondo, recruited by Barako from Ginebra, had back-to-back triples, a put-back and a steal to give the Energy a 106-97 lead with 3:33 left in the game.

Gary David turned the lights back on for the Bolts with two triples, the last one pegging the final score with 29 seconds to go. He finished with a season-high 40 points.

After a Barako miss, Meralco had the chance to tie or win the game with 5.7 seconds left. But Rey Hugnatan was bothered by Wilson underneath and missed at the buzzer.

Barako climbed to 2-2 while Meralco fell to 0-4.

Meralco coach Norman Black fumed at the referees after the final play but still had enough composure in him to shake the hands of Barako coach Koy Banal.

“I’m sure the team is very frustrated with losing. Nobody likes to lose,” said Black outside the gloomy Meralco dugout.

Banal, on the other hand, credited his wards’ gutsy game that put the team in joint sixth with NLEX.

“I hand it to the players. They deserve all the credit,” said Banal.