MANILA – San Miguel Beermen leaned on their experience in the fourth quarter to hold off the Meralco Bolts, 111-101, in Game 4 of the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup Finals last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
With the Bolts threatening at 85-88 with over eight minutes left, the Beermen leaned on connections from Terrence Romeo, Moala Tautuaa, Jaymar Perez, and Marcio Lassiter to build a 97-88 advantage.
The Bolts rallied to within six points several times but the Beermen responded with free throws from Perez and Fajardo as they stretched the advantage to 111-95 with under a minute left.
Fajardo led the Beermen with a double-double of 28 points and 13 rebounds, Perez added 22 points, while Lassiter unloaded four three-pointers to end up with 18 markers as they tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2.
“It’s a great win for us but we just tied the series and made it a best-of-three,” said Beermen head coach Jorge Gallent. “We just talk to one another, to trust each other and share the ball and we got 111 points.”
Chris Newsome finished with a career-high of 40 points, Chris Banchero added 21 markers, while Clifford Hodge ended with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Bolts.
Prior to the game, Fajardo received his 10th career PBA Best Player of the Conference award following his dominant performance for the Beermen in the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup.
The Pinamungajan, Cebu-native Fajardo clinched the award after attaining a total of 1,100 points — 472 points from statistics, 514 from media votes, and 114 from player votes.
The seven-time PBA Most Valuable Player winner accumulated 43.12 statistical points with his averages of 17.3 points, 14.5 rebounds, and 3.1 assists through the semifinals round.
The 6-foot-10 Fajardo bested Beermen teammate Jaymar Perez, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings’ Christian Standhardinger, Terrafirma Dyip’s Stephen Holt, and NLEX Road Warriors’ Robert Bolick Jr. for the individual award./PN
BOX SCORE:
SAN MIGUEL 111 – Fajardo 28, Perez 22, Lassiter 18, Tautuaa 9, Manuel 8, Trollano 8, Romeo 7, Ross 6, Cruz 5, Teng 0, Brondial 0.
MERALCO 101 – Newsome 40, Banchero 21, Hodge 17, Maliksi 9, Quinto 6, Bates 4, Almazan 2, Rios 2, Caram 0, Torres 0.
Quarterscores: 29-22, 51-40, 82-74, 111-101.
