SMB banks on third-quarter mastery, grabs 1st semis seat in PBA PHL Cup

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The San Miguel Beermen relied on a massive third-quarter surge to book the first spot in the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals, taking down the NLEX Road Warriors, 101-94, on Dec. 25, 2025, at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.

After trailing by six points at the half, the Beermen finally regained their stroke from downtown, unleashing a demoralizing 21-2 scoring run that put them ahead by 13 points, 68-55.

From that sequence, the Beermen took control of the game until the final buzzer sounded, taking advantage of their twice-to-beat edge to knock the Road Warriors out of another PBA postseason campaign.

A series of sloppy possessions and consecutive turnovers derailed San Miguel from their hot-start aspirations in the opening quarter, as NLEX’s perimeter defense and great reads on the passing lanes gave them tons of freebie points from the get-go.

Aside from their defensive masterclass, NLEX also received a huge lift from Robert Bolick, who is fresh off a gold medal run with the Gilas Pilipinas men’s national basketball team in the recently concluded Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

Bolick proved to be too much to handle for the Beermen, as the veteran combo guard torched them from the three-point line while also applying rim pressure every time he drove head-down into the shaded lane.

Just when NLEX thought they could stick to their disruptive game plan, the Beermen flipped the switch at the start of the third, courtesy of Don Trollano and June Mar Fajardo’s offensive showcase.

From a six-point deficit, the duo took turns scoring, with Trollano detonating high-looping treys and Fajardo pummeling his way against NLEX’s soft double teams in the post.

The Beermen only needed six minutes to erase their deficit, forcing NLEX head coach Jong Uichico to call back-to-back emergency timeouts in hopes of restoring order to his squad.

However, no matter what defensive tweaks and matchup switches NLEX tried to contain SMB’s momentum, the rolling Beermen closed the quarterfinal matchup with a simple play — feed Fajardo in the post and get out of the way.

The Road Warriors threatened to strike back with a late push from Bolick’s hot hands, but three straight high-low post plays to Fajardo officially shut down NLEX’s comeback hopes in the final 2:34 of the game.

Fajardo capped off his first postseason game with a dominant double-double of 26 points, 23 rebounds and six assists, while Jericho Cruz chipped in 18 markers.

Meanwhile, Trollano — Fajardo’s partner in crime during that third-quarter offensive avalanche — supplied 17 points, while CJ Perez added 14 markers.

The Beermen will now have enough time to recover as they await the winner in the quarterfinal series between Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and the Converge FiberXers.