By Reuel Vidal

THE San Miguel Beermen totally outplayed the Talk N Text Tropang Texters to post a convincing 112-103 victory in the KFC-Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Seigle waxed hot on the offensive end, combining for 66 big points, while Marc Pingris provided the defensive spark as the Beermen equalized their best-of-seven semifinal playoff at one game apiece.

“We came out really flat in our last game,” said winning coach Siot Tanquingcen of the San Miguel Beermen. “The main thing was we came out aggressively early. That was the main component that was different tonight. We were aggressive on both ends of the court from the start.”

Jimmy Alapag drilled a triple to cut the San Miguel Beer lead to only six points, 93-87, with still 5:28 to go. But the Beermen, led by Seigle and Hontiveros, ignited an 11-4 run to seal the match, 104-91, with only 2:10 left.

Talk N Text sparkplug Macmac Cardona was held to only eight points, his second lowest career output.

“Our guards worked really hard to limit Cardona,” said Tanquingcen. “Dondon [Hontiveros] and Bonbon [Custodio] really stepped it up a notch on the defensive end. At the same time, he [Cardona] was also unlucky and missed some easy shots. So it was a combination of many factors going our way.”

Hontiveros finished with 23 points and five assists. Seigle tallied 23 points and eight rebounds. Custodio scored 16 points and issued three assists. Jay Washington had 14 markers and three rebounds.

Pingris provided the spark off the bench with 11 points, nine big rebounds and two assists.

Pingris trapped Jason Castro at midcourt, then blocked his attempt to preserve the 84-71 San Miguel lead after the third period. Earlier, Pingris split his charities to push the Beermen to their biggest lead of 16 points, 84-68, with 1:13 to go in the third period.