Beermen run over Dyip

MANILA, Philippines — It’s essentially a no-bearing PBA Governors’ Cup elims game but playoffs-bound San Miguel Beer had a strong motivation to go hard against also-ran Terrafirma.

For starters, the Beermen needed to wash away the bitter taste from their previous 98-116 defeat to TNT, and only a big pullaround victory could do that.

Then there’s the necessity of getting their groove back in the closing stages of group play and building momentum for the big showdown with league-leading NLEX before the quarterfinals proper.

And so George King, June Mar Fajardo and the Beermen were all business in the Group A duel as they ran over the Dyip, 135-105, last night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

King turned in a royal performance of 44 points spiked by a 4-of-6 clip from the extended arc and an immaculate 3-of-3 shooting from the three-point area to go with five rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal.

Fajardo delivered his best showing of the conference, dropping 25 markers with 12 rebounds as he moved five points away from joining the league’s elite 10,000-point scorers’ club.

“Since yesterday and during our huddles I was always reminding them that this game was really important for us,” said coach Leo Austria, whose wards improved to 8-3 and kept their hold of No. 2 in the group.

“We wanted to bounce back from our loss last game and also maintain our position in the Top 2 or 3 with a chance to get to No. 1. Good thing, the players, after a bad start, realized the importance of the game and played with a sense of urgency and showed the killer’s instinct that I’ve been talking about,” he added.

Such a trait unraveled late in the second period, where the Beermen unloaded a 14-2 barrage to break away, 64-47.

JMF had a chance to seal his career milestone in the fourth but asked Austria to give the floor to his seldom-used teammates instead.

“Hindi ko naman tsine-chase ‘yun (10,000 career points) pero thankful na mapabilang ako run. Darating at darating ‘yun,” said Fajardo, who is expected to reach the plateau in SMB’s elims closer against the Road Warriors next week.

Later, NLEX revved up in the second half en route to a 147-115 beating of Titan Ultra.

Deonte Burton (21-9-7) and Robert Bolick (20-5-8) led the charge as the Road Warriors (9-2) stayed on top of Group A while sending the Giant Risers reeling to 2-9.