For three years, Brian Heruela played alongside his college pal June Mar Fajardo in San Miguel Beer.
During that time, the two Ceubanos shared four PBA titles together, including three Philippine Cup championships.
So it was a tad weird to see Heruela and Fajardo on different sides of the floor Sunday night for the first time since 2014, or since the stocky point guard was still with the Blackwater Elite — the team that drafted him in that year.
But for Heruela, it had been fun.
“It’s been a while.
“I haven’t played against him since I was in Blackwater. It was fun to go against him,” said Heruela, who’s now with the TNT KaTropa after being part of the deal that sent flashy guard Terrence Romeo to the Beermen
It had, indeed, been fun for Heruela. He and the KaTropa reigned victorious over SMB convincingly, 104-93, putting an end to their nine-game losing skid to the powerhouse team that traces back to the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
For Heruela, there hadn’t been anything special he felt in facing San Miguel as a whole, but the familiarity he has with them certainly helped.
“To be honest, I just treated this as any other team that we played against and we’re just happy to get this win tonight against a very strong team,” he said. “[But the familiarity helped] A little bit because I’ve been there for a while.
“So I know pretty much know all the plays that they run. I just had a little anticipation but regardless, they had good execution so we just tried to anticipate.”
