Beermen force Game 5 with a 108-102 comeback over Barangay Ginebra in Game 4 of their PBA Governors' Cup quarterfinal series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday. San Miguel trailed by 17 points early in the third quarter, then scored 46 in that period to take control and set up a winner-take-all decider.
Beermen force Game 5 with a 46-point third quarter
Ginebra built a double-digit lead in the first half and went up 61-44 on a Jordan Murphy layup at the 10:19 mark of the third quarter. San Miguel answered with a 22-0 run to move ahead 66-61 a little more than four minutes later.
Isaac Go stopped that surge with a layup to make it 63-66, but the Beermen kept coming. A 24-10 run pushed the lead to 90-73 early in the fourth, and the gap later reached 19 at 98-79.
George King and Chris Ross carry San Miguel
King finished with 35 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, a steal and a block. Ross added 20 points, nine assists, six rebounds and five steals, and his split from the free throw line iced the game after Jonathan Gray missed from four-point territory.
CJ Perez chipped in 14 points, while Don Trollano had 11 markers off the bench.
Scottie Thompson and Jordan Murphy keep Ginebra in it
Thompson powered Ginebra with 27 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals, and his pair of free throws cut the deficit to 102-105 with 25.9 seconds remaining. Murphy added 16 points, 22 rebounds and three assists.
Ginebra had sliced a 19-point hole down to three at 100-103 with 2:11 left, helped by a triple from Nards Pinto. Troy Rosario scored 15 and Go added 13, both off the bench.
A bailout foul by Thompson on King kept San Miguel ahead, 107-102, before Ross sealed the result from the line.
Analysis: how the third quarter got away from Ginebra
Two separate San Miguel runs did the damage: the 22-0 burst that flipped a 17-point deficit into a five-point lead, then the 24-10 stretch that turned a close game into a 17-point cushion. Ginebra's bench scoring kept the Gin Kings within reach late, but the hole created across those two stretches was the difference.
Game 5 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo
The winner-take-all Game 5 is set for Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
This report is based on the original coverage by philstar.com.
