Beermen rip Warriors to capture ABL crown

The San Miguel Beermen returned to the top of the ASEAN Basketball League hierarchy after capturing the coveted crown late Wednesday with a, 70-55 win over the Indonesia Warriors, sweeping the best-of-three finals series, 3-0, at the Mahaka Square in Jakarta, Indonesia.

League MVP Asi Taulava continues to defy Father Time at age 40 as he paced the squad with 19 points while Chris Banchero, who was named as the Finals MVP, had 10 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals. Leo Avenido had a double-double performance with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Fittingly, the Beermen rose to the crown on the country’s Independence Day, an apt occasion as the title win freed San Miguel from the bitterness of their championship loss at the hands of these very same Warriors last year. The disbanded Philippine Patriots won the inaugural crown of this tournament back in 2010.

While the first two games of this series were barn-burners, Game Three was anything but as the Beermen kept the Warriors at bay with a steady dose of stellar effort on both ends of the floor. They led, 33-27, at halftime and surged ahead even more in the third canto to take a 53-43 lead into the final period.

The Beermen kept the pedal to the metal from thereon with Avenido’s three-pointer putting them up by 15, 61-46, essentially sealing the win and the crown for San Miguel.

Mario Wuysang led the Warriors with 21 points but import Steven Thomas was rendered a non-factor with just five points while missing all eight of his field goal attempts.

BOX SCORE

San Miguel (70) – Taulava 19, Banchero 10, Avenido 10, Acuna 9, J. Williams 7, B. Williams 6, Fortuna 5, Hubalde 2, Menk 2, Cawaling 0.

Indonesia (55) – Wuysang 21, Daniels 15, Pringle 11, Thomas 5, Smith 0, Prihantono 0, Sitepu 0.