Converge moved on the verge of completing a reverse sweep as it pushed San Miguel to a sudden death in their PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup quarterfinal series following a 114-100 Game 4 win on Friday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
From a team searching for its first playoff win, the FiberXers have now won two in a row, giving themselves a chance to upend the mighty Beermen after the youth-laden squad showed maturity most especially in the second half.
Deschon Winston powered their 37-point eruption in the third canto, before Alex Stockton, Bryan Santos, and Justin Arana came through with the big plays for the finishing run as their foes lost their 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 affair.
Now, Converge is heading to its most important game of the season to date — Game 5, that is, scheduled on Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
“If you go up against a perennial championship contender, balewala ‘yung momentum eh,” interim head coach Franco Atienza offered.
“Everything will be… the stats would be out, momentum would be out, it’s just one game. Whoever would want it more, however, cliche that may sound, ‘yun ang makakakuha nito,” the young bench tactician continued.
A total of three players finished with 20-plus points in the win, with Winston top-scoring with 26 points that saw him score 16 in the third alone. The La Salle product also collected six rebounds, five assists, a steal, and a block.
Arana supplied 25 points and six rebounds, while import Jalen Jones produced 22 points and seven rebounds as he overcame foul trouble.
Game 3 hero Stockton delivered 16 points, five rebounds, and eight assists. King Caralipio made 10 off the bench while Santos chipped in nine.
Santos scored all of his points from beyond the arc, with the last two — in back-to-back fashion. — easily the most important of the night as it repelled SMB’s comeback from 14 down and pushed their lead to 109-95 with 2:36 left.
Arana would then help out in punching in the toughest of blows, a three-point conversion with exactly two minutes left for the 112-97 advantage.
That play, of course, led to jubilation for the entire Converge as it saved as well the efforts of Stockton, Jones, and Caralipio in taking control early in the fourth quarter that left the Beermen a disappointed bunch.
“We’re just glad that we were able to defend them as a team and execute as a team also. That’s the only formula for us. We cannot go against them head-to-head, kailangan team defense and team offense,” Atienza said.
“It’s nice that in spite of the challenge, our import had early foul trouble, and then going back to the endgame, wala pa rin siya last three minutes, the locals stepped up. Everyone stepped up, guys from the bench responded.”
EJ Anosike, on the other hand, led San Miguel with a game-high 35 points and 11 rebounds in the loss, which has put the franchise on the edge of becoming the first team since TNT in 2014 to blow a 2-0 lead in a best-of-5 series.
June Mar Fajardo made 17 points and 20 rebounds. Marcio Lassiter had 15 points while CJ Perez and Jericho Cruz added 11 and 10, repsectively.
The Scores:
Converge 114 – Winston 26, Arana 25, Jones 22, Stockton 16, Caralipio 10, Santos 9, Cabagnot 5, Ambohot 1, Delos Santos 0, Nieto 0, Andrade 0.
San Miguel 100 – Anosike 35, Fajardo 17, Lassiter 15, Perez 11, Cruz 10, Romeo 5, Trollano 4, Rosales 2, Tautuaa 1, Ross 0, Enciso 0, Brondial 0, Manuel 0.
Quarterscores: 31-29, 51-55, 88-79, 114-100.
