June Mar Fajardo copped the Best Player of the Conference award before tip-off, then his teammates seized the moment with a great display of touch from the outside as San Miguel Beer moved on the threshold of a PBA Philippine Cup three-peat.
The Beermen rained down three-pointers on the Barangay Ginebra Kings in a coast-to-coast 94-85 victory that gave San Miguel a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven finale Friday night.
Fajardo, now holder of five BPC plums, and his teammates take their first of three cracks at bagging the series and the permanent Jun Bernardino Trophy in Game Five at the Big Dome Sunday.
Only four teams (four-of-50) in PBA history have climbed out of a 1-3 hole to win the best-of-seven series.
The second best three-point shooting team with 10.3 conversions a game, the Beermen outdid themselves with a rapid-fire shooting that mowed down the Kings.
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Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, Ronald Tubid, Gabby Espinas and Yancy de Ocampo combined for 15 triples as against Ginebra’s only five.
A crowd of 17,146 yelling fans witnessed a virtual replay of San Miguel’s 109-82 rout in Game One. Included in the crowd were Sen. Joel Villanueva, PBA great Ramon Fernandez, former Ginebra ace guard Bal David and celebrities Vice Ganda and Vhong Navarro.
But the Beermen came out with guns ablaze and dominated the game all throughout.
With a torrid 11-of-21 three-point shooting as against Ginebra’s 0-of-5, SMB stormed to a 55-34 halftime lead.
The Beermen erected an early huge lead at 20-2 as they went 6-of-6 from the three-point area to start the game.
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At the start of the second quarter, Espinas, Tubid and De Ocampo nailed three straight triples, and the Beermen posted another big spread at 39-20.
The Ginebra crowd was starting to get excited following three straight baskets by Chris Ellis when Ross and Lassiter answered with back-to-back treys.
