San Miguel gets job done with aplomb

UNTHINKABLE though it may be for the Alaska Aces to give up the fight despite the firepower arrayed against them, in the end they were forced to succumb to the heavy artillery which San Miguel Beer summoned at will whenever the battle hung in the balance.

Thrice in the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals, the campaign seemed lost for the Beermen as they stared at the end of double-digit deficits, but in all three life-and-death situations SMB dodged the bullet, reloaded and blasted its way out of the Butch-and-Sundance jam in a blaze of glory.

Game 1 of the best- of-7 championship was an anomaly, an inexplicable fluke of nature, with revved-up SMB ripping rusty Alaska, 108-78, and Beermen coach Leo Austria scratching his head in the aftermath and expressing bewilderment.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I had expected a tough game.”

The opener was essentially over after the first quarter as SMB rolled to a 35-22 lead, raining 28 three-point shots on Alaska overall, with 10 finding their mark. Snubbed for the Best Import award in favor of the Aces’ Romeo Travis, Arizona Reid went wild with 32 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists in 39:47 minutes, outdueling Travis, who limped home with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in 35:34.

Denying he was furious at getting passed over for the individual award, Reid nonetheless may have found extra motivation to prove he was more deserving of the honor, channeling his wrath at focusing on his goal to win his first PBA championship after four years.

Chris Lutz connected on 3 of 4 from 3-point range, providing a glimpse of the corner 3-point shooting which SMB will use to cut down Alaska throughout the series, while, Arwind Santos, the hero of the Beermen’s Game 7 victory over the Aces in the Philippine Cup Finals early this year, went 3 of 6. Junemar Fajardo hardly flexed a muscle in finishing with 18 points and 17 rebounds, setting the tone for his MVP season and PBA Press Corps Finals MVP moment later.

Alaska was 5 of 20 overall from beyond the arc, a 3-point dearth that will haunt it no end.

A more resolute Alaska showed up though for the next three games, taking a 9-point lead (85-76) with 9 minutes left in Game 2, a 5-point edge (83-78) with 8:21 to go in Game 3, and a 14-point advantage (49-35) late in the second quarter of Game 4.