The San Miguel Beermen and NLEX Road Warriors opened the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with the former needing only one win to advance to the semis as the top seed. NLEX, in contrast, needed a victory to send this matchup to a winner-take-all and actually put up quite the fight. But, in the end, the Beermen proved to be too much, holding on for a 104–94 triumph to book the first semifinals berth of this conference.
What Happened?
NLEX, buoyed by the return of newly minted SEA Games gold medalist and team leader Robert Bolick, got off to a strong start, going toe-to-toe with San Miguel and winning the first quarter by a hair, 29–28. The Road Warriors continued to push the pace in the second to pad their lead to 53–47 going into halftime after Bolick hit a buzzer-beating triple.
San Miguel, though, opened the second half with a 17–2 blitz to take a 64–55 lead and seize control. In all, the Beermen outscored NLEX 32–19 in the third quarter to take an 89–82 cushion heading into the payoff period. The Road Warriors got as close as 97–94 with 40 seconds remaining in regulation but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Who Stood Out?
June Mar Fajardo, as usual, was San Miguel’s rock all throughout as he finished with 26 points, 23 rebounds, and 6 assists. Put simply, good things happened when the Kraken got the ball, as NLEX had no answer for him. Jericho Cruz and Don Trollano also starred for the Beermen, coming off the bench to add 18 and 17, respectively, to make up for CJay Perez’s poor outing.
NLEX, on the other hand, was led by Robert Bolick, whose 31-point, 10-rebound, 7-assist near triple-double nearly led the Road Warriors to an upset. Unfortunately, Berto couldn’t get timely help from his NLEX teammates, especially down the stretch.
3 Keys to the Game
- Rebounding. Expectedly, San Miguel won the rebounding battle—and by a big margin. The Beermen’s dominance on the glass was particularly evident on the offensive side of things as they grabbed 25 offensive boards to NLEX’s 6. That led to a 19–8 advantage for San Miguel in second-chance points.
- Bench play. Outside of Fajardo, none of San Miguel’s starters played well against NLEX. But that didn’t matter because the second unit, led by Trollano and Cruz, stepped up big time. In all, the Beermen’s bench outscored their NLEX counterparts, 48–31.
- Interior scoring. The Beermen, thanks to Fajardo standing tall, their prolific offensive rebounding, and drives by Cruz and Trollano, scored half their points in the paint. Overall, San Miguel had a 56–38 advantage over NLEX in inside scoring.
Next Up for the PBA
The PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals will continue on Saturday, also at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The second-seeded Rain or Shine Elasto Painters will face off with the seventh-seeded Meralco Bolts in the first game. A showdown between No. 3 TNT Tropang 5G and No. 6 Magnolia Hotshots will be the nightcap.
Meralco vs. Rain or Shine (5:15 p.m.)
Magnolia vs. TNT (7:30 p.m.)
