Beermen surge ahead

MANILA, Philippines, August 27 ------ Banking on an array of heroes led by June Mar Fajardo, San Miguel Beer outlasted TNT in overtime, 108-100, to take command of the tightly-fought PBA Philippine Cup finals last night at the MOA Arena.

Fajardo dished out a monster 27-point and 27-rebound performance to lead the charge as the Beermen salvaged a 2-1 lead in the race-to-four series after overcoming a near catastrophic meltdown at the end of regulation. Chris Ross, Robbie Herndon and Jericho Cruz stepped to the plate and gave SMB the big push it needed in the extra five minutes.

Herndon, whose delay of game warning on the TNT inbound in the dying seconds of regulation led to a technical foul and the tying free throw of RR Pogoy, redeemed himself and scored five quick points to anchor SMB to a 7-0 start in OT. As was his role in past playoff runs, Ross made big defensive plays and even knocked down a booming triple that all but put the game away, 106-97, with 1:29 left in extra time. Cruz scored six of his 18 in the closeout as SMB survived the fouling out of key players CJ Perez and Marcio Lassiter in the fourth to secure this hard-earned follow-up to their 109-100 win in Game 2. The Beermen will now try to go on the hill in tomorrow’s fourth game.

RR Pogoy topscored with 25 for TNT, which has lost back-to-back games since coach Chot Reyes temporarily left to attend to Gilas Pilipinas duties in Lebanon. Reyes is expected to be back on the bench as the defending champions go all out to avoid getting into a 3-1 hole and make it an even 2-2 instead.

It was a hard-fought match that saw 13 deadlocks and 15 lead changes all throughout. San Miguel threatened to break the game open twice in the first half but each time, TNT pulled back to manageable levels.

With Vic Manuel dropping 12 off the bench, the Beermen raced to a 27-19 advantage at the end of the opening period. But the Tropang Giga quickly wiped it away with 11 unanswered points spiked by three triples at the start of the second to wrest a three-point edge. Fajardo and the Beermen went up by nine at 45-36 but then Castro and the Tropang Giga launched a strong closeout to get to within three at the half.

The scores:

San Miguel 108 – Fajardo 27, Cruz 18, Lassiter 13, Manuel 12, Perez 11, Ross 8, Herndon 8, Tautuaa 6, Brondial 5, Enciso 0.

TNT 100 – Pogoy 25, M. Williams 17, Castro 17, Erram 11, Khobuntin 11, K. Williams 10, Rosario 4, Reyes 3, Marcelo 2, Cruz 0, Montalbo 0, Ganuelas-Rosser 0.

Quarters: 27-19; 49-46; 74-76; 94-94; 108-100.

Source: philstar.com