MANILA – San Miguel Beermen bundled out Phoenix Fuel Masters with a 105-94 beating in Game 5 of the best-of-seven semifinals to reach the championship round of 2019 Honda PBA Philippine Cup last night at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.
Chris Ross sizzled from start to finish to lead the way with 24 points, including five three-point conversions, to go along with six steals for the Beermen, which entered the All-Filipino conference finals for the fifth straight year.
Alex Cabagnot added 22 markers and seven assists, June Mar Fajardo had double-double 17 points and 16 rebounds, while Arwind Santos and Terrence Romeo had 12 and 10 markers, respectively, for the Beermen.
The Beermen surged to a 9-2 start with triples from Ross and Cabagnot before the Fuel Masters rallied to within four but triples from Ross and Marcio Lassiter extended SMB’s edge to 22-15.
The Beermen were still on point in the second period as back-to-back triples by Von Pessumal increased the advantage to 34-25. The lead grew further to 51-39 at the half on consecutive points from Ross and Cabagnot.
The Fuel Masters were still hanging around early in the third when the Beermen launched a huge run from Cabagnot, Ross and Matthew Ganuelas-Rosser for its biggest lead at 78-53.
Phoenix, however, did not just gave up as it answered back with a huge run in the fourth to come to as close as 94-98 but a basket from Romeo and free throws by Santos and Cabagnot brought SMB’s lead back to 11 points.
Matthew Wright top-scored with 20 points, while Bacolodnons Justin Chua and Luis Alfonso Revilla finished with 18 and 15 markers, respectively, for the ousted Fuel Masters./PN
