Reporting note: this article draws on philstar.com; LodiScore provides the summary and editorial framing.
Fajardo 10,000 points puts him in elite company
The June Mar Fajardo 10,000 points milestone arrived at the 2:21 mark of the opening period, making the San Miguel Beer center the 19th player in PBA history to reach the career mark. The Group A game against NLEX at Ynares Center Antipolo carried on well past that moment, and the result stayed open until the final seconds.
Fajardo finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. The 10,000-point plateau is one of the league's established career markers, and his place in it was secured before the first quarter ended.
San Miguel erase a 20-point deficit
NLEX held a 116-96 lead early in the fourth quarter and appeared ready to pull clear. San Miguel answered with a 39-21 closing run and took the game 135-133.
George King scored 10 of his team-high 27 points in the fourth. Don Trollano added 23, with 17 coming in the closing stretch, and King finished the comeback with an inside stab with 5.2 seconds left.
The Beermen had trailed by 20 at their lowest point before the fourth-quarter surge. The rally leaned on King and Trollano, with Fajardo's 26 points part of a wider scoring effort.
- Final score: San Miguel 135, NLEX 133
- Fajardo: 26 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks
- King: 27 points, 10 of them in the fourth
- Trollano: 23 points, 17 in the closing stretch
- Burton (NLEX): 43 points, six blocks
NLEX take the top seed on quotient
Both teams closed group play at 9-3, so the No. 1 seeding went to the tiebreak. NLEX took it on superior quotient, built on its 110-96 win over San Miguel in the first round.
The two teams split their group meetings, but the quotient tiebreak weighs scoring margin, and NLEX's 14-point win in that earlier meeting proved decisive. San Miguel needed a winning margin of at least 15 points to overturn the edge, and the two-point victory left the Beermen at No. 2.
NLEX import Deonte Burton finished with 43 points and six blocks in a losing effort.
Fajardo and Austria on the milestone and the win
"It's an honor to be part of the 10K club. That credit goes to my teammates and the coaching staff; I couldn't have gotten it without them." — June Mar Fajardo
Fajardo said the win carried more weight for the team than the individual mark, pointing to a top-two finish in the group as San Miguel's elimination-round target. "I'm happy we got our goal in the elims, the top two," he said.
Coach Leo Austria said the seeding question did not change how his team approached the game. "Going into the game we didn't care if we were No. 1 or No. 2. We're here to play to win," he said.
What comes next for San Miguel
San Miguel enters the crossover quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed from Group A and will face the No. 3 seed from Group B in a best-of-five series. NLEX goes in as the top seed.
The Beermen close group play with a win built on fourth-quarter production from King and Trollano, alongside Fajardo's milestone night. The quarterfinals will show whether that late-scoring formula holds across a five-game series, where a 20-point deficit is harder to absorb.
This report draws on the original account published by philstar.com.
