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| Nuki Sabio/PBA |
By Dugout Philippines
Still on a high after winning the prestigious Philippine Cup title, the San Miguel Beermen were immediately sent back to earth on their PBA Commissioner's Cup debut.
The team which did the beating, however, was a team no one expected to do so.
The Kia Carnival pulled off the first major upset of the ongoing conference as they hacked out an 88-78 win against the Beermen at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Carnival raced to a double-digit spread in the second quarter, eventually extending the lead to 18, 65-47, in the ensuing period.
The Beermen, however, took advantage of P.J. Ramos' foul trouble as they crawled back and cut the advantage to just two, 71-69, early in the fourth.
L.A. Revilla then sparked a 10-1 Kia rally to stretch the lead back to 11, 81-70, and never looked back despite Ramos fouling out as Junemar Fajardo also incurred his sixth foul late in the match.
Ramos led the Carnival, who only won for the second time in their maiden PBA season, with 22 points.
Fajardo and import Ronald Roberts scored 18 each for the Beermen.
Box Scores:
Kia 88-Ramos 22, Revilla 12, Yee 11, Cawaling 10, Avenido 9, Pascual 8, Dehesa 5, Burtscher 4, Buensuceso 4, Poligrates 3, Alvarez 0, Ighalo 0
San Miguel 78-Fajardo 18, Roberts 18, Santos 14, Lutz 8, Tubid 7, Ross 5, Lassiter 4, Cabagnot 2, Pascual 2, Kramer 0, Fortuna 0, Semerad 0
Quarterscores: 21-17; 46-35; 67-53; 88-78
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