MANILA, Philippines — George King poured in 44 points to lead the San Miguel Beermen past the Terrafirma Dyip, 135-105, in their PBA Governors’ Cup matchup Wednesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
King shot 11-of-18 from the field, as he hauled down five rebounds and dished out five assists, to go with two blocks and a steal.
The win finalized the quarterfinal berths of TNT and Converge, while eliminating Terrafirma, Titan Ultra and Macau from the playoffs.
“Since yesterday and during our huddle, I’m trying to remind them that this game is really important for us. We want to bounce back from our loss last game and this game is really important for us to maintain our position in the top two,” San Miguel head coach Leo Austria said.
“Good thing is the players, after a bad start, they realized and nakita nila yung importance ng game so yung sense of urgency naalala nila and that’s the way we want to play this game,” he added.
“Yung killer instinct na sinabi ko sa kanila before, it gave us a lot of championships e. So I don’t want them to lose that kind of attitude.”
Leading by just one, 28-27, after the first quarter, San Miguel dropped 77 points in the middle quarters as King ran rampant.
He scored 30 of his 44 in the second and third quarters as the Beermen took a 105-80 lead heading to the fourth.
The lead grew to as much as 43, 125-82, after an and-one play by JM Calma as San Miguel breezed through to the finish line.
June Mar Fajardo seconded King’s explosion with 25 points and 12 rebounds. CJ Perez added 22 markers, five boards, three dimes and a steal, while Don Trollano supplied 13 markers off the bench.
Justin Strings finished with 28 points and nine rebounds for the also-ran Dyip, while Mav Ahanmisi had 23 markers.