By Sportsmanila Staff
What was expected to be a heavyweight bout between the last two Governors' Cup champions turned out to be a dud.
Defending champion San Miguel flexed its muscles and overpowered sister team Star, 109-100, at the Big Dome Sunday as the Beermen got back to their winning ways in the season-ending conference.
Despite the Hotshots making things interesting to start the fourth quarter, it was the Beermen who controlled the game throughout, taking advantage of their size amd pounding the ball inside with two-time reigning MVP Junemar Fajardo.
The Kraken ended up with 28 points and 13 rebounds as the champs moved up to 3-1.
"If you notice na kapag sister team ang magkalaban, it's always a war," head coach Leo Austria said.
"Today pinakita nila yung energy. I think all the players iisa lang yung goal tonight eh which is yung W," he added.
San Miguel built a lead as much as 20 in the wire-to-wire win but the Hotshots made a run in the fourth to cut the deficit to five, 83-88.
That's when the Beermen simply went back to basics and took the grind out win.
AZ Reid paced the Beermen with 34 points and 11 assists while Alex Cabagnot added 21.
James Yap led six Star players in double figures with 20 points but he only had two in the final 12 minutes.
Marcus Blakely had 15 for the Hotshots who dropped to 1-3 for the conference.
The scores:
SAN MIGUEL 109 - Reid 34, Fajardo 28, Cabagnot 21, Ross 14, Lassiter 7, De Ocampo 3, Tubid 2, Arana 0, David 0, Reyes 0.
STAR 100 - Yap 20, Blakely 15, Garcia 14, Melton 14, Barroca 11, Simon 10, Pingris 6, Mallari 4, Reavis 4, Maliksi 2, Pascual 0, Sangalang 0.
Quarters: 32-20, 56-39, 83-70, 109-100