IT was as lopsided as it could get.
The San Miguel Beermen eased their way to the next round by annihilating the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters, 115-96, in the quarterfinals yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum to be the first team through to the semifinals of the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.
Marcio Lassiter and Alex Cabagnot were both on target, leading the victors to victory.
Lassiter tallied a game-high 26 points while Cabagnot fired six triples on his way to 20 points along with eight rebounds.
Armed with a twice-to-beat incentive as the second seed, San Miguel wasted no time in showcasing its beast mode.
The Beermen jumped out of the gates and took command emphatically the rest of the way.
They established several 23-point bubbles right away, with everything clicking, midway the second period and never looked back.
The Beermen will now wait for the winner of the quarterfinal series between the Star Hotshots and the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. They clash in the semis for a best-of-five duel.
The No. 7 Fuel Masters had no answers and suffered helplessly for the entire game, thanks to the non-stop avalanche of San Miguel.
Phoenix is now headed to an early vacation.
As of this report, top seed Barangay Ginebra is currently trying to do the same thing in its own quarterfinal game against eighth ranked GlobalPort.
The Gin Kings are looking to join the Beermen in the Final Four.
Meanwhile, the two best-of-three series resume today a pair of Game 2s with Star and TNT KaTropa also eyeing seats in the semis.
At 4:15 p.m., the Hotshots face Rain or Shine again while at 7 p.m., the Texters clash with the Meralco Bolts.
The Hotshots and the Tropang Texters each hold 1-0 leads over Rain or Shine and Meralco, respectively. Both are looking to close out their series.
On the other hand, the Elasto Painters and the Bolts are both looking to equalize and survive to force a decider against their counterparts.
The second-ranked Beermen had a fairly easy ride to the quarterfinals.
They finished with a nine-win, two-loss record to tie Barangay Ginebra and Star Hotshots in the standings. They took second place behind Ginebra in the PBA quotient system tie-break.
The TNT KaTropa (8-3) took fourth place followed by the Bolts (7-4), the Elasto Painters (5-6), Phoenix (4-7) and GlobalPort Batang Pier (4-7). The Alaska Aces (4-7) were eliminated through a knockout game against GlobalPort.
The rest of the teams eliminated outright are the Mahindra Floodbuster (3-8), the Blackwater Elite (2-9) and the NLEX Road Warriors (2-9).
The Beermen won the season-opening PBA Philippine Cup and are openly aspiring to win all PBA titles this year to gain a coveted Grand Slam.
