San Miguel Beer repulsed a big uprising from Barangay Ginebra in the endgame before preserving a hard-earned 102-99 win in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Friday evening.
Import Cameron Clark came up with another solid game, a fitting follow-up to his breakout performance on Wednesday’s convincing triumph against NorthPort.
Against Ginebra, Clark finished with 35 points, including the insurance basket in the closing seconds that allowed the Beermen to score their seventh win in eight games and join TNT on top of the standings.
On Sunday, the two teams part ways to decide which will occupy the solo leadership after their 6:45 encounter at the Philsports Arena.
“It feels good. We know it’s going to be a hard game, they have a lot of good players and better chemistry,” said Clark.
“It was really a good test for us to get a win.”
For Clark, winning against Justin Brownlee and Barangay Ginebra gave him some sort of redemption.
Last season, Clark played for NLEX but lost to Ginebra in four games of their best-of-five semis series of the same tournament.
“We’re not worried about last year, but it feels great that today we got the win,” said Clark.
The Scores:
SAN MIGUEL 102 – Clark 35, Perez 20, Fajardo 12, Manuel 10, Lassiter 8, Enciso 6, Cruz 5, Brondial 4, Ross 2, Tautuaa 0
GINEBRA 99 – Standhardinger 29, Brownlee 21, Gray 14, Thompson 13, Malonzo 9, Pringle 6, Pinto 6, Mariano 1, Tenorio 0
QUARTERS: 24-21, 50-47, 82-72, 102-99
