Beermen stretch streak to 3 games

MANILA, Philippines — In a game headlined by the titanic matchup of super big men, it’s one of the smallest guys who stood tall in the windup.

San Miguel Beer guard Juami Tiongson erupted for all of his 14 points in the fourth period to spark the Beermen to a 96-90 victory over Converge in the PBA Philippine Cup last night at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.

Out of his output, the 5-foot-10 Tiongson produced a critical 12-point cluster in a four-minute stretch that lifted SMB to a 91-80 separation and cleared the way to its third straight win after an awful 0-2 start.

The defending champions ended the FiberXers’ two-game streak and tied the latter at 3-2.

“I’m so happy for Juami because for first time out of many games, bigla siyang pumutok, sunod-sunod,” said coach Leo Austria of Tiongson, who knocked down two triples, a pair of jump shots and four free throws in greasing the team’s breakaway from a tight contest.

“That’s what I’m expecting from him and he did it at the right time and right place because this game was important for us,” Austria added.

Tiongson, who backed up June Mar Fajardo’s 24-point, 16-rebound double-double effort, deflected credit, giving props to his backcourt partners.

“Actually, kumuha ako ng inspiration kina Kris Rosales and Chris Miller, and seeing ‘yung binibigay nila na quality minutes, I knew I had to step up also in order for us to win,” he said.

The Beermen’s defensive work was topnotch in this All Souls’ Day W.

Though Deschon Winston (20) and Converge’s Twin Towers Justin Arana (19-10) and Justine Baltazar (14-19) still got their points, the Beermen held the FiberXers to their lowest score of the conference after averaging 121.25.

The shackles were felt most by Alec Stockton and Juan Gomez de Liaño, who managed only six and eight markers, respectively.

San Miguel pulled this streak-extender off with Don Trollano sitting out due to back tightness.

Later, Barangay Ginebra arrested a two-game skid with a 104-74 romp over NLEX.

The Gin Kings improved to 2-3 while stopping the three-match streak of the Road Warriors, who dropped out of the lead at 4-2.