San Miguel Beer’s Cebuano center June Mar Fajardo shoots over Ginebra’s Joe Devance in Game 4 of their PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series last night at the Araneta Coliseum.
San Miguel Beer played so well without letup all night and made Barangay Ginebra say die for a change.
Breaking away in the second quarter, the Beermen led by as large as 33 points on the way to spilling the Gin Kings all over the place, 101-72, to forge – and take a huge psychological edge into – a rubber match in their Final Four series in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
In front of the season-closing conference’s biggest crowd of just over 22,000 at Smart Araneta Coliseum last night, San Miguel looked so pretty in making Ginebra looked so bad as Gin Kings’ coach Tim Cone played with his shock troopers practically the whole of the fourth period to keep them fresh.
In contrast, Leo Austria waited only until the final three minutes – and with the Kings already beaten to a pulp – to recall his starters back and keep them sharp for Game 5 slated tomorrow also at the historic Big Dome at 7 p.m.
Marcio Lassiter scored 11 straight points to open the second frame and the San Miguel defense held the Kings scoreless for the first eight minutes – and to just seven the entire period – that started the rout.
“When (Cone) saw that (we already had a big lead), he did not play his key players,” Austria told reporters. “That means he is already preparing for the next game. I’m sure it will be a different ballgame for them (in the rubber match).”
It was a ploy that Austria refused to fall into, knowing the character of the Kings.
“You can never be sure of what will happen, they can come back and we know that,” Austria said when asked why he kept his aces on the floor even with an insurmountable lead
“I know coach Tim in that kind of a situation.”
“Game 3 was fun, today was absolutely not,” Cone said, though he dismissed the blowout as just a loss. “They just beat us up, we just couldn’t match up.”
Cone said he had an inkling that his Kings were mentally drained after a 97-96 Game 3 win on Friday night.
Lassiter finished with 25 points on 7-for-9 shooting from three-point range to lead the Beermen, who drew twin digits from four others, counting June Mar Fajardo’s 17 points and 16 boards and Elijah Millsap’s 13 and 17.