Batang Pier trip Warriors, take 4th slot

MANILA, Philippines - The dynamic Globalport duo of Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle combined for 56 points in another compelling performance and powered the Batang Pier past the NLEX Road Warriors, 96-90, to clinch the fourth playoff spot in the Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

Romeo and Pringle sparkled with 29 and 27 points, respectively, as the Batang Pier led from start to finish and snatched an automatic quarterfinals passage with a fifth win in eight games.

The prolific backcourt tandem delivered clutch plays that fended off NLEX’s endgame charge and sent the Road Warriors down to join sixth with the Barangay Ginebra Kings at 4-4.

Romeo starred in their key win at the Big Dome while his alma mater Far Eastern U completed a glorious run in the UAAP over at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

And that broke the heart of Globalport coach and former UST star Pido Jarencio, notwithstanding their key win over NLEX.

“My heart is bleeding,” said Jarencio, monitoring the FEU-UST sudden death during their own battle with the NLEX Road Warriors.

“Three finals in four years with the same players. I thought this is now UST’s time after two frustrating years. Hindi pa rin pala and that gave me so much pain,” said Jarencio, the UAAP finals losing coach with the Tigers in 2012 and 2013.

“But life must go on,” said Jarencio, the coach that gave the UST Tigers their last UAAP championship in 2006.

A former King Tiger, Jarencio poured his emotion over the UST loss before talking about the Globalport triumph.

“Globalport was completely focused to win this game to have some separation with NLEX. I was telling the guys, if we could win with a big margin let’s do it for the quotient,” he said.

The Batang Pier sat on a huge 18-point halftime lead while getting four points from the stripe with .5 second left.

Junmar Fajardo piled up a personal season high 35 points that went with 11 rebounds as San Miguel Beer closed in on a Top Two finish with a 102-86 rout of Mahindra in the nightcap.

The reigning back-to-back MVP missed by a point his career best output as he was rested by coach Leo Austria with a good three minutes left to play.