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San Miguel showed no signs of rustiness in its first game after close to a one-month layoff as the Beermen blasted the Burger King Whoppers, 102-87, to draw first blood in their best-of-seven semifinal duel of the 34th PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Colisuem, last night.
The game was only close in the first quarter which saw San Miguel closing the period with a slim 24-22 lead.
The Beermen started pulling away in the second canto when the Whoppers fell into a maze of erros.
Burger King committed nine turnovers in the second period and could only convert four of its 21 attempts, allowing San Miguel to surge to a 45-37 halftime lead.
Import Gabe Freemen helped the Beermen further rip the game wide open in the third where he scored the bulk of his game-high 22 points.
“We had a hard time picking up our rhythm in the early going but the players just went through it and everything fell into place,” San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen told pba.ph.
Tanquingcen, however, stressed that their easy Game One win is not an indicative of the things to come in the series.
“This is just one game. Knowing (Burger King) coach Yeng (Guiao) I’m sure he’ll prepare his team for the next game. They (Whoppers) just came off from a tough quarterfinal series with Sta. Lucia so understandably they didn’t have the time to prepare for Game 1,” said Tanquingcen, whose squad led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter.
