San Miguel Beermen Basketball Updates

Photo Credit: PBA.PH

April 30, 2010 – As I predicted in our Facebook fan page, the San Miguel Beermen‘s chemistry will vastly improve after the All-Star break. This prediction came to life today as the San Miguel dominates Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 105-97, behind the huge efforts of several players and primarily bigman Jay Washington.

The San Miguel Beermen played sweet music together early in the game and put off the Elasto Painters as early as the third quarter after they pad the lead as high as 23 points. The starters played a brilliant first quarter behind the stellar quarterbacking of main point guard Alex Cabagnot. The Beermen scored a huge 34 points in the first quarter behind Gabe Freeman, Jay Washington, and the red-hot Dondon Hontiveros.

The second stringers also contributed well on keeping the Elasto Painters at bay. Keeping the Beermen’s lead is their scorching shot shooting, which goes as high as 58% in the first half alone coupled with their almost double edge in rebounding 31-16.

Some game highlights include:

1. Joseph Yeo alley hoop pass to the streaking Gabe Freeman after he almost lost the ball to the sidelines.

2. Joseph Yeo’s difficult twisted shot.

Wait for the videos of these in our Facebook fan page.

Gabe Freeman got his fourth personal foul in the third quarter and was seated the rest of the quarter to prevent from getting his fifth. Instead of the leading getting cut, the Beermen continued to dominate the Elasto Painters courtesy of Jay Washington who in one span scored 2 three point shots and 1 post up play amounting to 8 straight points. He finished as the Best Player of the Game with 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

Alex Cabagnot once again put on a great show orchestrating the plays while Denok Miranda seems to have improved his shooting sinking in two jump shots.

Below is the full news story from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA.PH).

SIZZLING SMB STREAKS TO FIFTH STRAIGHT WIN OVER RUSTY RoS

Friday, 04/30/2010 – 19:53

THE All-Star break affected San Miguel Beer and Rain or Shine in contrasting fashions.

No less than the teams’ respective coaches admitted this when the Beermen pulled off a cruising 105-97 win Friday to solidify their hold on the PBA Fiesta Conference leadership at the Araneta Coliseum.

Hardly affected by the 12-day layover from their last game and the recent mid-season spectacle in Puerto Princesa City, the Beermen picked up their game the most from midway in the second quarter on to lead by as many as 23 points twice, the last at 92-69.

“Medyo napaganda ‘yung break dahil napahinga ang mga players,” said SMB coach Siot Tanquingcen following the win that was his team’s fifth straight, jacking its win-loss record to 6-1.

“At the same time we were also able to work on several things, conduct practice and all those worked somehow to our advantage.”

Jay Washington, who led all scorers with a personal season-high 23 points, totally agreed.

“Everybody was able to get some rest during the break and that helped us a lot coming into this game,” said Washington, who drilled in three triples and added nine rebounds.

The defeat was Rain or Shine’s third in six games and coach Caloy Garcia blamed it all on his team’s inability to match SMB’s tenacity off the boards, where the Elasto Painters wound up with a 42-60 disadvantage.

But he also cited the long break his team had since their last game April 16, which seemed to have dulled their edge, and to the absence of All-Star performers Gabe Norwood, Sol Mercado, Jervy Cruz, Jeff Chan and Marcy Arellano.

Beermen Arwind Santos, Dondon Hontiveros and Jonas Villanueva also saw action in the All-Stars, but there’s no comparison, insisted Garcia. “Sa kanila, kahit ilan ang mawala All-Stars pa rin ang team nila. Kami hindi,” he said.

Jai Lewis led the Elasto Painters with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but he was held to just six points in the last three quarters.

Mike Hrabak went a perfect 5-for-5 from behind the arc for 17 points and Mercado and Tyrone Tang were the only other RoS players in double figures.

Gabe Freeman was his usual all-around self, netting 18 points on top of 15 rebounds. Dorian Pena added 13 boards while Dondon Hontiveros also had nine boards that helped stoke Garcia’s frustration at his charges.

“Today we simply played with no heart and allowed ourselves to be killed by San Miguel off the boards,” Garcia fumed. “I told my players before the game that we had to control the boards and we did not do that.”

Freeman got slapped with a technical foul for shoving Mark Telan after the latter’s hard foul on the SMB import underneath the basket with the count at 96-79, still 6:10 to go.

That was one of the very few times in the game when RoS showed some fire.

Washington was the hottest Beerman in the third period as he scattered 12 points anchored on two triples and fueled the team’s charge to an 88-65 lead before heading into the fourth with an 88-69 cushion.

Things started falling apart for the Elasto Painters in the second quarter, when they got outscored, 23-7, in the last 6:18 to fall behind by 64-49 at the half.

Joseph Yeo had six points with some hangtime moves in that surge with Danny Ildefonso and Santos adding four each.

Lewis was all set to surpass his conference average of 18.2 ppg as early as the first quarter, when he already had 14. But RoS still found itself trailing by 23-34.

Freeman had 10 points and eight rebounds in the opening period, but it was Alex Cabagnot who chiefly set the table with five assists.

It took two free throws by Mercado and a buzzer-beating layup by Tang inside the last 51 seconds of the period that made it a seven-point game.

Picking up from where he left off, Tang boomed in two triples and a left-handed lay-up to lead a sizzling comeback that brought RoS within 42-43.

The scores:

San Miguel Beermen 105 – Washington 23, Freeman 18, Hontiveros 13, Villanueva 8, Yeo 8, Ildefonso 8, Miranda 6, Pennisi 6, Pena 6, Santos 5, Cbagnot 4, Holper 0.

Rain or Shine Elasto Painters 97 – Lewis 20, Hrabak 17, Mercado 16, Tang 12, Telan 6, Norwood 5, Arellano4, Chan 4, Ibanes 4, Arana 3, Cruz 2, Reyes 2, Laure 2.

Quarterscores: 34-27, 64-49, 88-69, 105-97.

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