San Miguel shames ROS

Defending champion San Miguel Beer held off a late charge by Rain or Shine as it earned a crucial 82-75 win that gave the Beermen twiceto-beat advantage in the quarterfinal playoffs in the PBA Governors’ Cup last night at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in Pasay City.

SMB import Michael Singletary finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds, while former MVP Arwind Santos added 20 points, nine rebounds and four blocks – the last of which was on ROS rookie Mav Ahanmisi with his team protecting a 78-74 advantage.

Prior to that, Rain or Shine trimmed a nine-point deficit (73-64) with a 10-3 run, and actually had a chance to tie the score but Beau Belga missed an open close range shot. Singletary made it 78-74 with a layup, 1:31 to play.

The win improved San Miguel’s record to 7-3, joining TNT Katropa (8-1) and Ginebra (7-2) as teams with twice-to-beat incentives in the quarterfinal playoffs.

As for Rain or Shine, the team of coach Yeng Guiao has now dropped five of its last six games and holds a 4-6 card – this one coming on import Josh Dollard’s debut as the team’s fourth reinforcement after replacing Jason Forte.

Dollard finished with 18 points and nine rebounds.

ROS has one left game to play, against Star on Sept. 16, which is a must-win encounter or face the possibility of missing the quarterfinals for the first time after nine straight Final Four stints.

Earlier, Alaska head coach Alex Compton believes the Aces have regained their winning ways following their dominant 103-87 win over Phoenix Fuel to move closer from gaining a quarterfinal berth.

Protecting a five-point lead, 82-77, the Aces used a decisive 13-0 run capped by a jump shot from Calvin Abueva that gave them an 18-point advantage, 95-77, with 4:15 left in the Petron Saturday Special.

Abueva, the do-it-all forward of Alaska, had a double-double performance as he collected 18 points and 21 rebounds.

Alaska plays NLEX on Friday with the winner earning a quarterfinal slot.

“I kind of felt that (even) in our last game… that we got our team back,” said Compton, as Alaska extended its winning streak to three games as it also won over Globalport (133-106) and Blackwater (107-87). * – Quarterfinal berth