Converge deals San Miguel its first defeat

Converge stood its ground in the closing moments and hacked out a 107-103 victory over previously undefeated San Miguel, Saturday night in the elimination round of the PBA Season 47 Governors’ Cup at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Jamaal Franklin and rookie Justin Arana delivered the telling blows while transferee Jerrick Balanza drained the insurance free throw as the FiberXers bounced back from a crushing loss to TNT last Wednesday and dealt the Beermen their first defeat in the season-ending conference.

Both teams ended up with identical 5-1 win-loss records after the marquee matchup.

Franklin finished with a game-high 37 points on 10-of-21 shooting highlighted by 6-of-14 conversions from 3-point country. The former NBA player also tallied 9 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal and a block in 46 minutes of action.

“Well, it’s big. It’s a big morale booster for us. But we have to handle this win very well. We have to learn from this. Even though we won, there are lots of things that we still have to work on,” said Converge head coach Aldin Ayo during the post-game presser.

“We want to take June Mar away from the game right away. I told the boys, just play our game, make sure that we get the pace. Make June Mar a liability on defense. He’s probably the best player in terms of offense but may mga lapses din naman si June Mar, everybody knows it. Pero ‘yun ang trade off, and we want to exploit that,” he added.

Maverick Ahanmisi scored 15 while Alec Stockton and Balanza added 14 and 11 points, respectively.

Cameron Clark paced he Beermen with 30 points and 12 boards while CJ Perez had 28 markers. Jericho Cruz contributed 14 points while veterans Marcio Lassiter and June Mar Fajardo struggled throughout the game and could only produce a combined 15 points.

San Miguel will take a three-day break before gunning for its 6th win on Wednesday, February 15, 5:45pm against winless NorthPort at the same venue.

The scores:

Converge 107 – Franklin 37, Ahanmisi 15, Stockton 14, Balanza 11, Arana 9, Ebona 8, Tratter 6, Teng 5, Guinto 2, Racal 0, Murrell 0.

San Miguel 103 – Clark 30, Perez 28, Cruz 14, Lassiter 8, Fajardo 7, Tautuaa 4, Bulanadi 3, Ross 3, Manuel 2, Brondial 2, Enciso 2.

Quarterscores: 29-23, 50-49, 81-76, 107-103.

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