MANILA — The San Miguel Beermen sizzled their way to a fifth straight victory, bundling off sister team Barangay Ginebra Kings, 100-85, Sunday night in the 2015 PBA Governors' Cup.
With its 5-2 win-loss card, SMB is now at solo third spot in the standings behind the league leading Barako Bull (5-1) and Alaska (4-1).
Ginebra absorbed its fourth loss in six games and fell into a tie with Star for eighth to ninth place.
The Beermen played against a Ginebra team at full strength with the return of fit-again 7-foot center Greg Slaughter and his 6'9” frontcourt partner Japeth Aguilar. Versatile import AZ Reid led the Beermen with 27 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. He had ample local support as Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter, Arwind Santos and June Mar Fajardo all delivering the goods.
Ross narrowly missed a triple-double with 19 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Lassiter scored 13 points while Santos and Fajardo added 11 and 10 markers, respectively. Fajardo also had 20 huge rebounds.
After a tightly fought first half, the Beermen unleashed a scorching 22-3 run in the third quarter, punctuated by back to back three-pointers from Lassiter, to erect a 16-point lead, 63-47.
But Ginebra's Josh Urbiztondo caught fire late in the quarter, banging in 11 points including three triples as the Kings cut the deficit to 69-62. Ginebra continued chewing away at SMB's lead in the fourth, coming to within two points, 73-71.
But after a timeout, the Beermen responded with a 20-7 blast to pull away at 93-78, with 1:22 left.
Import Orlando Johnson once again led the Kings with 22 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Urbiztondo finished with 20 points, all scored in the second half. Aguilar had a double-double 16 points and 10 rebounds. Slaughter only scored six points in his first game for Ginebra in the season-ending conference.
Meanwhile, Ginebra is set to replace its unused Asian import Sanchir Tungalag from Mongolia. Coming in to replace him is South Korean hotshot Jiwan Kim, who is expected to arrive on Monday and play his first game in the PBA on Wednesday when Ginebra tangles with GlobalPort.
Language problem was the alleged reason why Ginebra coach Frankie Lim had sparingly used Sanchir, the star player of the Mongolian national team. Kim is known as a dazzling ball handler and shooter who joined the 2012 NBA draft but was left undrafted.
Barako Bull 112, Rain or Shine 103
The Barako Bull Energy pummelled the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 112-103, for their fifth win in six outings to regain solo leadership of the conference.
Muscular 7'2” import Liam McMorrow was nearly unstoppable, finishing with 32 points and 25 rebounds. Spotlight also shone on RR Garcia, who notched a career-high 26 points on 11-for-20 shooting from the field, including 4-of-8 from three-point range.
Joseph Yeo added 19 while Dylan Ababou posted 10.
Import Wendell McKines led Rain or Shine with 41 huge points and 17 rebounds while Paul Lee scored 21. No other Painter scored in double digit as the 2015 Commissioner's Cup finalist suffered its fourth loss in five outings to remain near the bottom of the standings in a tie for 10th to 11th spot with NLEX.
Games Tuesday: Alaska Aces vs. NLEX Road Warriors and Meralco Bolts vs. Talk N Text Tropang Texters.
