What else is new?
The San Miguel Beermen are in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals for the fifth consecutive seasons.
The Beermen broke down the top-seed Phoenix Fuel Masters, 105-94, on Thursday to advance into the championship playoff for the title they’ve laid their hands on since year 2015.
This, actually, is the 13th time the franchise is disputing the conference plum since it was inserted in the PBA’s annual calendar in 1977 under the name All-Filipino Conference and changed to Philippine Cup in 2004.
Before its string of 2015-2018 Philippine Cup, the Beermen had. Likewise, crowned themselves the All-Filipino champs in 1989, 1992, 1994 and 2001.
They took the 1989 and 1992 diadems at the expense of Purefoods (Magnolia Hotshots), the 1994 plum against Coney Island, also of the Purefoods franchise and 2001 versus Ginebra.
From 2001, SMB had waited half a decade before emerging triumphant in the PBA’s most prestigious.
Coach Jong Uichico called the shots when the Beermen took the title in 2001.
The Beermen’s present mentor Leo Austria has been at the helm in all those Philippine Cup 2015 2018 championship conquests.
Meanwhile who between SMB’s sister team Magnolia Hotshots and Rain or Shine will be the Beermen’s dancing partner come the gold medal play on May 1 in a yet to be determined.
The Pambansang Manok and the Elasto Painters were still mixing if up in Game 6 of their own best-of-three semis series Friday night where Magnolia leading, 3-2.
Austria, by the way, had given his boy a well-deserved rest following their Final Four series with the Fuel Masters.
“One day lang muna ang rest namin. If Magnolia wins tomorrow (Friday), ensayo na kami starting Saturday. Pag na-extend ang series, bibigyanko pa mga bata ng mahaba-habang pahinga,” Austria told The Manila Times after his team’s Game 5 win.
“We’re so thankful we’re back in the finals,” Austria said. “All we needed is to have a good start and it happened.”
“I give credit to Phoenix. They really pushed us to our limit. We loved it. Hopefully we could learn from this going into the finals. We hope we can sustain this momentum going into the finals,” Austria said.