Beermen claim top position,Kings No. 4

ANTIPOLO, Philippines — For San Miguel Beer, it’s No. 1 seeding and twice-to-beat advantage or bust.

And so SMB worked unflaggingly to meet their objective via a thorough 126-91 beating of NorthPort in the PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup elims last night at the Ynares Center.

The Beermen posted a closing 8-3 card, good enough for the top spot owing to their superior quotient in a quadruple tie with NLEX, Magnolia and Ginebra, which secured the fourth and last quarterfinal bonus with a 98-80 romp over Rain or Shine in the nightcap.

The Gin Kings outplayed ROS in the second half, 53-37, to end the elims with three straight Ws and crack the “Magic 4” heading to Wednesday’s playoffs.

SMB set up a grudge match against No. 8 Meralco in the Last-8, needing only one win to advance to the semis and dethrone the Bolts.

The No. 2 Road Warriors, No. 3 Hotshots and No. 4 Gin Kings carry the same edge against the No. 7 Elasto Painters (6-5), No. 6 TNT (6-5) and No. 5 Converge (7-4), respectively.

Coach Leo Austria said his charges had an all-business approach, knowing that a loss could potentially send them down to disadvantageous No. 5 position had they wound up tied for fourth with Converge at 7-4. The FiberXers would get the No. 4 after the winner-over-the-other tiebreaker, thanks to their recent 100-97 win over SMB.

“Because of our situation, the players’ mindset is really they wanted to win. And you can see how they outhustled and outrebounded (NorthPort),” he said.

CJ Perez led six San Miguel Beer players in double figures, firing 24.