Beermen bring Kings to their knees, lead 2-1

MANILA, Philippines - June Mar Fajardo was back to his old dominant role as the Beermen took a 2-1 lead over Barangay Ginebra with a 99-88 victory last night in Game 3 somehow marred by an endgame trey by Chris Ross that didn’t sit well with the Gin Kings camp.

The Gin Kings confronted Ross for taking and converting on that three-pointer with the outcome already settled in the closing seconds. The Kings, particularly coach Tim Cone, felt being disrespected.

Earlier, Fajardo who fouled out in the stretch in Game Two that enabled the Gin Kings to pull through, 124-118, in overtime and square the best-of-seven series, brought back SMB’s key advantage in the paint, putting in a huge double-double game with 17 points and 18 rebounds as the Beermen regained the lead in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The 6-foot-11 behemoth was at his best in the payoff quarter, shattering Ginebra’s double-teaming defense and finding open teammates as SMB overcame a struggle through the first 30 minutes and ripped apart the Kings on a 12-to-nothing closing run.

“The big difference really was June Mar,” said SMB coach Leo Austria, also crediting to their main man the double-digit outputs of gunners Alex Cabagnot, Marcio Lassiter and Ross.

“In Game Two, we saw that we would have a hard time winning without June Mar. It’s really different when June Mar is in there. He’s dominant inside and our gunners are ready to take the shots from the perimeter,” Austria pointed out.

That was the case as the Beermen broke away from a tight 87-88 count in blanking the Gin Kings in the last four minutes of play.

A little commotion marred the endgame as the Gin Kings confronted Ross for taking and converting a three-pointer with the outcome of the game already settled in the closing seconds. The Kings felt being disrespected.

Fajardo, Ross and Cabagnot teamed up in their 12-0 closing tear in a stretch where the Gin Kings went 0-of-7 from the field on a sorry finish in a game they led majority of the way.

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL 99 – Ross 24, Cabagnot 20, Fajardo 17, Lassiter 16, Santos 9, Tubid 6, Reyes 3, Heruela 2, Espinas 2, Garcia 0.

GINEBRA 88 – Tenorio 16, Ferrer 15, Aguilar 12, Ellis 12, Caguioa 11, Thompson 8, Devance 6, Mercado 5, Marcelo 3, Helterbrand 0, Taha 0.

Quarterscores: 19-24, 44-49, 69-66, 99-88.