Once again, San Miguel Beer’s superb firepower was in full display as it walloped Rain or Shine for the third straight game in their best-of-seven semifinals series in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Dasmarinas Arena in Cavite.
The Beermen outplayed the Elasto Painters, 117-107, in Game 3 to move within striking distance of advancing to the championship round for the second time this season.
San Miguel can sweep the series and take the luxury of getting well-rested in the championship series with a victory on Friday’s Game 4 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Against Rain or Shine, San Miguel’s depth and experience was simply too much as seven players wound up in double figures for the Beermen.
Three of those players even ended up with a double-double showing with CJ Perez finishing with 23 points and 14 boards.
Don Trollano came away with 20 points on top of 11 boards while seven-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo contributed 11 points and 11 rebounds for San Miguel Beer.
Completing San Miguel’s Magnificent Seven were Marcio Lassiter (21), Terrence Romeo (13), Chris Ross (12) and Mo Tautuaa (10).
But while San Miguel is just a win away from getting the job done, Meralco moved halfway to making it back to the championship round, this after the Bolts jolted Barangay Ginebra with an 87-80 win.
Unlike the Beermen-Elasto Painters encounter, the Bolts had to rely on their defense and engage Ginebra in a low-scoring game.
The pace simply favored the Bolts, who held their rivals to just 36% shooting from the field (28-of-76).
