BOOM! One big bomb, and San Miguel Beer skyrocketed away.
Rodney Brondial, CJ Perez and June Mar Fajardo spearheaded a 30-12 tear in the third quarter as the Beermen broke free from a tight game en route to a series-tying 107-82 rout of the Barangay Ginebra Kings in their side of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals Wednesday at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
Trailing 50-51 at halftime, Brondial, Perez and Fajardo combined with Juami Tiongson and Jericho Cruz to give SMB a strong third-quarter start then Chris Ross, Jeron Teng and Moala Tautuaa also provided a push coming off the bench.
Perez scored on a layup off a feed from Ross then Teng buried a charity as the Beermen made it 83-63 to start the payoff period. And there's no let-up for the Beermen in an incredible second-half show that made up for their 90-100 defeat in Game Three and forged a 2-2 tie in their race-to-four face-off.
They dispute the pivotal 3-2 series lead in Game Four back at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday.
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"Kailangan talagang manalo, mahirap maging down 1-3 sa series. Reminder ni coach (Leo Austria) kailangan itaas ang intensity at i-execute ang game plan, at thankfully, nagawa naman namin," said Fajardo, collecting 12 points and 19 rebounds in his return to the SMB starting unit.
"Looking at the stats sheet, we see Ginebra getting 18 assists. Mataas pa rin (for any team in a game) pero mababa sa kanilang average," said Austria. "It proved our defense was working. And I saw from the start, in the dugout, ang body language ng team - evident different ang energy."
True enough, the Beermen fought with tremendous energy and effort in foiling the Kings' bid at moving within a win of the finals.
Perez top scored with 19 points with Tiongson contributing 14, Brondial and Cruz 12 apiece and Don Trollano 11.
Actually, neither team led by more than seven in a tight, highly physical battle in the first half.
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The Kings took a 51-50 edge at the break with Scottie Thompson, Troy Rosario and Japeth Aguilar leading the way for the team.
Thompson fired 11 points, Rosario tossed in 10 while Aguilar had eight markers and six boards against the Beermen who had no single player scoring more than nine in the first 24 minutes of play.(SB)
The Scores :
SAN MIGUEL 107 - Perez 19, Tiongson 14, Fajardo 12, Brondial 12, Cruz 12, Trollano 11, Teng 9, Lassiter 6, Ross 5, Rosales 3, Tautuaa 2, Calma 2, Cahilig 0.
GINEBRA 82 - Rosario 14, Malonzo 12, Thompson 11, J.Aguilar 10, Abarrientos 9, Ahanmisi 7, Holt 5, Pinto 4, Tenorio 4, R.Aguilar 4, Gray 2, Cu 0, David 0.
QUARTERS: 24-26, 50-51, 80-63, 107-82