ANTIPOLO – San Miguel rained on Converge’s early parade with a 96-90 win on Sunday in the PBA 50th Season Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.
Juami Tiongson exploded in the fourth quarter, scoring all of his 14 points in that stretch as the Beermen won their third straight game to improve to 3-2 (win-loss).
The Beermen also limited high-scoring rookie Juan Gomez de Liano to eight points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field to deal the FiberXers just their second loss in five games.
There was a big-game feel to the contest with the Beermen playing one of the fast-rising teams in the league in the FiberXers, the reigning champions ultimately prevailing.
“Today, alam nila na Converge ang kalaban. We respect them a lot because alam namin na powerhouse sila,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria.
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June Mar Fajardo had a monster double-double of 24 points and 16 rebounds for the Beermen. But it was Tiongson who lit up the Beermen with five straight buckets that turned a 76-75 lead into an 88-80 spread with 5:24 left.
Fajardo took over with a free throw and a lay-up with 5:24 remaining that got San Miguel up, 91-80, its biggest lead of the contest.
Cjay Perez contributed with 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists for the Beermen.
Schonny Winston scored a team-high 20 points to go with seven rebounds, while Justin Arana (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Justine Baltazar (14 points and 19 rebounds) also had double-doubles for Converge.
The FiberXers sorely missed the offense of Gomez de Liaño as well as Alec Stockton, who only had six. Their 90 points is the lowest for the conference after being the most prolific team at 121.25 a game, according to PBA statistics chief Fidel Mangonon.
The scores:
San Miguel 96 – Fajardo 24, Tiongson 14, Perez 13, Tautuaa 9, Teng 7, Brondial 6, Cruz 6, Rosales 6, Calma 5, Lassiter 4, Miller 2, Ross 0.
Converge 90 – Winston 20, Arana 19, Baltazar 14, Concepcio 9, Gomez de Liaño 8, Muyang 6, Stockton 6, Garcia 4, Javillonar 4, Santos 0, Racal0, Clemente 0, Eguilos 0, Delos Santos 0.
Quarters: 20-28; 47-49; 69-66; 96-90.
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