San Miguel Beermen Basketball Games Updates

Photo Credit: PBA.ph

Playing without its supposed-to-be import Nate Carter did not prevent the San Miguel Beermen from notching its first win in the PBA Fiesta Cup as Jonas Villanueva stepped up in his absence to rip the Alaska Aces apart, 93-89.

Nate Carter was not allowed to play by the San Miguel Beermen management for a lack of clearance from the former team that he played before the Beermen.

I was not able to watch the game but I expected that the San Miguel Beermen has somehow a good chance of winning against Alaska as they are a tired team having not yet recovered from their 7-game series with the Talk N Text Tropang Texters.

Still credit is due to the rest of the Beermen who played hard to win this game especially Jonas Villanueva for notching a career-high of 27 big points.

Its sad that we already lost an import but hopefully we can find a good one before our next game on Sunday against the Burger King Titans.

Here now is the rest of the game story from the Philippine Basketball Association (pba.ph).

IMPORT-LESS BEERMEN SURPRISE ALASKA
Villanueva leads SMB with career-high 27 points
Wednesday, 04 March 2009

ANTIPOLO CITY. — Nate Carter was all set to make a splash in the Philippine Basketball Association but an unexpected twist spoiled his debut and prompted San Miguel Beer to show up with an all-Filipino roster in its conference debut.

His absence though hardly had a jolting effect on the Beermen as Jonas Villanueva dished out a superb performance and led San Miguel Beer to a 93-89 victory over the Alaska Aces Wednesday night in the 2009 Motolite-PBA Fiesta Conference.

Before sellout crowd at the Ynares Center, Villanueva put on repertoire that made him look like an import as the Beermen won against the Aces for the first time in three meetings this season.

Villanueva led all scorers with a career-high 27 points on a 9-of-13 shooting from the field and was virtually unstoppable in the first half when the Beermen took control of the game.

“I guess it was a blessing,” SMB coach Siot Tanquingcen said after the win.  He said they learned that Carter couldn’t play only few minutes before gametime.

The Beermen placed Carter’s PBA debut on hold after the import’s agency – Passing Lane — failed to secure a clearance from the Pro B league in France – the league Carter last played in  before planning in and signing up with San Miguel. Reports said the SMB import abandoned his team, Saint-Etienne B.C.

Tanquingcen said Carter claimed “he left the team because he wasn’t being paid. And that the team gave him permission to leave.”

Actually, Carter has 15 days to accomplish the requirement but apparently, SMB didn’t want to risk paying P500,000 should the world governing body of the sport learned that Carter was allowed to play without a clearance – a must for all imports around the globe.

Although he didn’t say that he is giving Carter the pink slip, Tanquingcen said he and his coaching staff will burn the lines starting Wednesday night and try to shop around for a possible replacement.

Dondon Hontiveros scored 22 points and Bonbon Custodio added 13 for the Beermen who also overcome the absence of injured Danny Ildefonso and Mark Pingris, and the fouling out of Dorian Pena and Jay Washington, four minutes apart midway in the fourth quarter.

The Aces, who trailed by as many as 17 points late in the third quarter, pulled within 73-78 on two free throws by Young with 5:12 remaining.

But Alaska lost the momentum on the next play when San Miguel Beer center Samigue Eman scored in the lane and drew a foul on Galen Young, who called it a night with 4:54 remaining after scoring 12 points and 10 rebounds.

For the third time since tying the record of the legendary Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan in Game 5 of the recent KFC Philippine Cup finals against Talk ‘N Text, Tim Cone was denied from notching his 602nd victory that would make him the winningest coach in the league.

The absence of Carter didn’t seem to bother the Beermen, who completely controlled the first half with Villanueva exploding for 13 points while hitting all his five attempts from the floor including 3-for-3 from the 3-point range.

Villanueva scored 10 points in the opening quarter and SMB capitalized on seven turnovers by Alaska in the period to race to a 25-12 lead and never look back.

Five of those Alaska turnovers were committed by Young, who struggled in the first half against his former team. He scored just two points on 1-of-7 shooting.

The Beermen extended the lead to 31-15 on back-to-back threes by Ken Bono and Dondon Hontiveros, one and 30 minute in the second quarter.

Joe Devance (19 points) and Jeffrey Cariaso (14 points) picked up their rhythm late in the second quarter and combined to score Alaska’s last 14 points of the period as the Aces trimmed SMB’s lead to just 44-38 at halftime. (DBC)

The scores:

San Miguel Beer 93 – Villanueva 27, Hontiveros 22, Custodio 13, Bono 8, Gonzales 6, Pennisi 5, Washington 4, Racela 3, Pena 3, Eman 2, Baguion 0.

Alaska 89 – Devance 19, Thoss 15, Cariaso 14, Young 12, Dela Cruz 11, Hugnatan 6, Miller 5, Fonacier 4, Tenorio 3.

Quarterscores: 25-12, 44-38, 71-56, 93-89.

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