If Game 1 is important for one team to establish its character over the other in a playoff series, then San Miguel Beer certainly drove its point hard right in Alaska’s face.

Seizing control early and blowing hot all of Friday night, the Beermen manhandled the Aces 108-78, for a 1-0 lead that could set the tone for the rest of the best-of-seven series for the PBA Governors’ Cup title at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

“I honestly cannot tell you what happened,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria told reporters in Filipino, shocked as most everyone were at how easy his Beermen handled the tough-as-nails Alaska crew.

“I really thought that this was going to be a very tough game,” Austria went on. “But it is still just one game. I know they will bounce back hard (in Game 2) because they (Aces) don’t want to be down 0-2, that would be tough.”

Arizona Reid ran rings around all defenders thrown at him, shooting 32 points, including 12 in the fourth period, to lead a five-sided battering ram that chopped down Alaska with ease.

June Mar Fajardo, the leading Best Player of the Conference and season MVP candidate, scattered 18 points that went with 17 boards with Alex Cabagnot and Arwind Santos shooting 15 each and Chris Lutz adding 12.

Cabagnot and Lutz were the instigators of the early San Miguel breakaway, shooting 10 and nine points, respectively, in the first quarter as the Beermen took leads of as large as 19 points in the period and never looked back.

Alaska played possibly its worst game of the conference, on the very night that it was supposed to be well-rested and was actually given the edge.

So pathetic was the Alaska offense that the 14 points of import Romeo Travis were enough to lead the team, which shot a horrid 35% from the field.

“There’s not much of a story here, other than I got outcoached and we got beat from start to finish,” Alaska coach Alex Compton said. “I feel like the score is not indicative of who they are and who we are. They ran away with it and the basket became a garbage can for them.”

Obviously, Compton knows they can do a lot better come Sunday night, when Game 2 is held at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

“I still believe we can beat them. If I didn’t I’d probably try to get tossed (out) in the first quarter (of Game 2),” he said. “But whatever we did tonight, that’s not going to work, that’s for sure. We better do something different.”

Meanwhile, the Best Player of the Conference and Best Import awards will be handed out before Sunday’s Game 2 tip-off, with Fajardo the hot pick for his second BPC of the season and Reid and Travis left to slug it out for the Best Import plum.

Fajardo closed out the statistical points race as No. 1, with a comfortable margin on Globalport spitfire Terrence Romeo, after averaging team-best numbers in three important statistical categories among locals – points, rebounds and shot blocks.

With 17.8 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks a contest at the end of Final Four action on Monday night, the 6-foot-10 San Miguel Beer franchise player averaged 36.2 statistical points.

Romeo, who was the go-to-guy of the Batang Pier this season, was the best scorer among locals with an average of just a shade over 22 points a night and was second in the SP derby with 32.9.

Voting among the players, the PBA and the media will still decide the winner of both awards, though it is obvious that Fajardo could have a chunk of those with San Miguel in the Finals and Globalport bowing out in the quarterfinals.

The other candidates for the BPC are Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra, Marcio Lassiter also of San Miguel and the ageless Asi Taulava of NLEX.

While it is expected to be a lopsided result in the BPC, the Best Import race is a toss-up between Travis and Reid, who led their respective sides to a 1-2 finish in the elimination round and into the best-of-seven championship series.

Jarrid Famous of Globalport finished atop the SP race for the Best Import award after averaging 30.2 points and 23 rebounds until the quarterfinals.

Travis and Reid finished seventh and fifth but are both in the Finals, which will weigh heavily in the balloting.