SAN MIGUEL Beer (SMB) had trouble getting its offense going for almost three quarters—until Lordy Tugade found his rhythm and capped the Beermen’s siege in the pivotal fourth.

Tugade poured all his 16 points in the last nine minutes to take scoring honors and lead the Beermen to their third consecutive victory, 93-77, against the slumping Rain Or Shine (RoS) on Wednesday night in the KFC-Philippine Basketball Association Philipine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

“Lordy is capable of exploding anytime. Actually, he’s taking good shots. It’s not just falling in. Good thing he finally found his rhythm in the fourth quarter,” said SMB coach Siot Tanquingcen after their latest success that improved their record to 3-2.

After playing sparingly for 10 minutes in the first three quarters and going 0-for-4, Tugade nailed his first shot of the night from 8 feet with 8:24 to play.

After RoS turned the ball over, the six-foot-two shooting guard nailed two free throws before hitting big threes that broke the game apart and took away the Elasto Painters’ hope of getting out of the rut.

“I’m just thankful coach didn’t give up on me. It somehow kept me going and it motivated me,” said Tugade, who went 4-of-5 from the field, including 3-of-3 from the three-point zone in the fourth quarter and went 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

It was another disappointing ending for the Elasto Painters, who kept the game close for three quarters but lost steam when the game was on the line.

Jaffrei Chan’s three-pointer a minute into the fourth put RoS ahead for the last time at 61-60. Denok Miranda’s free throw tied the count 90 seconds later before Mike Cortez drained a three as SMB took the lead for good.

Cortez scored 14 points, Dondon Hontiveros added 13 and Arwind Santos chipped in 12 for the Beermen, who shot 62 percent (10-of-16) in the fourth.

The lost was the fifth straight for the Elasto Painters, who recorded their worst season start since entering the league in 2006.

Gabe Norwood and Chan each scored 14 points but hardly made an impact to motivate their cause.

Assistant coach Richard del Rosario called the shots for RoS, supplanting chieftain Caloy Garcia who figured in a minor vehicular accident recently.