By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña The San Miguel Beermen is officially back with their winning ways after dominating the Blackwater Bossing, 115-102, to clinch their second consecutive victory in the ongoing PBA Commissioner’s Cup on December 15, 2024, at the Ynares Center. After a lopsided 106-88 win over the Terrafirma Dyip, the Beermen sustained their firepower and survived a slow first-quarter outing when they trailed by eight points. Spearheading San Miguel’s quick turnaround was June Mar Fajardo who bullied his way in the shaded lane. Since the return of Leo Austria as their head coach, the league’s only eight-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) received a decent amount of touches as part of the system that the long-time mentor designed since their ‘Death Five’ era with Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, Chris Ross, and Marcio Lassiter. Fajardo established his footing midway through the second frame and steered San Miguel to a momentum-stealing 37-22 run that put them in the driver’s seat heading into the second half, 55-48. Terrafirma countered Fajardo’s dominance by deploying soft double teams every time he touched the ball at the post but the superstar center was too experienced enough to throw the kick-out passes to his open shooters. The sequence went on until the fourth frame and it came to a point where Terrafirma just waved the white flag when they failed to solve the Fajardo puzzle all game long. In the most crucial stretch of the fourth when Terrafirma threatened to inch close when they finally knocked down their treys, Fajardo put the entire San Miguel squad on his back and scored nine of the last 15 points made by the Beermen. The Cebuano native finished the win with a stellar double-double performance of 27 points and 22 rebounds alongside six assists. “Mabuti na lang ‘yung bread-and-butter namin na plays, name-memorya pa. Medyo mataas ‘yung kanilang mga memory card,” said Austria after winning against Terrafirma. Torren James, San Miguel’s new reinforcement after Quincy Miller, top-scored the Beermen with 29 markers and pulled down 14 boards. The local pool was led by CJ Perez, who fired 15 points and tallied six rebounds and three dimes while Jericho Cruz’s aggressiveness in going to the cup helped him produce 14 markers.
