SAN Miguel Beer at full strength is simply too much for any team.
The Beermen veritably made this statement when it trounced former tormentor Converge, 114-96, Wednesday in the match kicking off their PBA Commissioner's Cup quarterfinals duel at the PhilSports Arena.
CJ Perez notched 25 points in leading a balanced attack that had four of SMB's starters finishing in double figures following a game that saw it lead by as many as 31 points before easily foiling the FiberXers' fourth quarter fightback.
In the end, the Beermen exacted sweet revenge over the same team that beat them, 102-106, in their lone elimination round meeting last Oct. 21 while gaining the headstart in the best-of-three match-up.
Devon Scott helped make sure of that with 23 points, 12 rebounds and five assists while June Mar Fajardo, absent in that first meeting due to injury, had his own double-double of 19 points and 16 rebounds on top of three steals.
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"It's just the gelling of the team. The best part about it is everybody's healthy now, everybody's contributing, everybody's doing their job," said Jorge Gallent, chief deputy to head coach Leo Austria.
"It's so nice to have a healthy team," added Gallent. "Now we're healthy and the gelling is there. We've been doing a great job sharing the ball and going to the right places."
Marcio Lassiter added 11 points while Simon Enciso only managed eight points but issued a career-high-tying 10 assists before getting ejected for his second technical foul with just a little under seven minutes to go.
Converge actually threatened to turn things around when Quincy Miller got into his scoring rhythm and the FiberXers managed to find their touch from deep with Aljun Melecio's triple pulling them to within 87-98, at about the midway point of the fourth quarter.
But Scott, Fajardo and Perez combined for a dizzying 14-5 counter that practically iced the game, 112-92, only 2:24 to go.
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The fact that Converge managed to keep the game interesting despite falling behind by as much as 52-83, is something Gallent said would be foremost in their reviews going to Game 2 on Saturday. "We have to really watch the video and look at what's happening in the fourth quarter," he said.
After being held to just nine points in the entire first half, Quincy Miller still finished with 41 points and 13 rebounds but got sparse support from his teammates, most notably Jeron Teng who only had five points. (NC)
The Scores:
San Miguel 114 - Perez 25, Scott 23, Fajardo 19, Romeo 13, Lassiter 11, Enciso 8, Tautuaa 6, Ross 5, Cruz 4, Brondial 0.
Converge 96 - Miller 41, Melecio 11, Arana 11, Tratter 10, Ahanmisi 7, Teng 5, DiGregorio 5, Ilagan 4, Stockton 2, Bulanadi 0, Tolomia 0, Racal 0, Ambohot 0.
Quarters: 21-13, 55-32, 88-65, 114-96
