The San Miguel Beermen is scheduled for a head-to-head quarterfinals round game against the NorthPort Batang Pier at 4:30 P.M. on July 24, 2019 live from the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Batang Pier will try to bounce back and advance to semis while the Beermen wanted to continue where they left-off and be listed as one of the Final Four squads.
Though they lost their quarterfinals opener, NorthPort gained so much respect from their opponent.
Their success at the end of the elimination round where they finished as number two in the standings proved that they’re no longer a pushover squad.
“Kahit natalo namin sila, respeto nandu’n pa rin,” said Beermen center June Mar Fajardo. “Hindi p’wedeng bale-walain dahil malakas din sila.”
The Beermen piled double-digit thrice in their first head-to-head battle and twice NorthPort able to recover and trimmed it down to just a point.
“We built two big leads, but NorthPort’s a really good team,” said Chris Ross. “They crawled back both times.”
“Inconsistent kami on offense saka defense,” said Arwind Santos. “Kasi nag-li-lead na kami ng 15 points, ganyan, bigla na lang nahahabol pa. Parang iyung sakit namin dati na di maiwasan.”
If Batang Pier import Prince Ibeh wasn’t in foul trouble the result might be different. With Ibeh in the middle, SMB import Chris Mccullough and Fajardo had a hard time manufacturing their points inside the paint.
“Ang hirap umopensa dahil kailangang mag-click iyung perimeter namin dahil ang hirap tumira sa loob eh. May human eraser doon, eh,” said Beermen head coach Leo Austria. “Kaya hirap na hirap, eh, especially si June Mar. Hindi niya makuha advantage, eh.”
NorthPort’s prized rookie and the new starring role in their backcourt, Robert Bolick is confident that his team is capable of making a bounce back.
“Confident naman ako sa team namin,” added Bolick.
“Hindi namin ibibigay ng madali ‘to, for sure. We will fight. We will have a dogfight next Wednesday. Hindi namin ibibigay ‘yan. We worked hard for the second seed, tapos kukunin lang ng ganoon? No. Papakamatay kami.”