The San Miguel Beermen were on the verge of churning out the greatest comeback in a PBA Finals game, Sunday evening. With Arwind Santos leading the way, the reigning Philippine Cup champions rallied back from 26 points down during the second frame, and gained a 110-108 lead with 3.2 seconds remaining.
And they needed just one stop to complete the comeback.
Joe Devance was able to send the game into extra time, eventually leading to a 124-118 overtime win to tie the 2016-17 PBA Philippine Cup Finals series at 1-1. For Santos, though, the game-tying basket should have been waived off, alleging that multiple errors should have been called on the Filipino-American.
“Dapat nga [offensive] foul pa ‘yun. May tulak pa ‘yun. Puwede pang tawagan ng double [dribble] kasi hindi hindi naman tumama ng board,” said the 11-year league veteran, who finished the game with 23 points and 15 rebounds in 44 minutes of action.
“Natapik ko nung nasa kamay na niya. Pero nung binato na niya, hindi na tumama yun,” the 6-foot-4 forward asserted.
San Miguel fought back from a huge deficit, 33 fouls, and were without June Mar Fajardo during overtime. Santos himself was called for five personal fouls in the game. But even with the way the game had gone and its result, the former Most Valuable Player saw a silver lining in the loss.
“Sayang, nandun na kami. Ang maganda dito, nahabol namin yung malaki nilang kalamangan.
“Kaso na foul trouble, hindi maganda yung tawag ng mga referee kay June Mar,” the Angeles City, Pampanga-native lamented.
And they plan to move on from this and focus on Game Three.
“Pero hindi na namin tinitignan yan. Move on na kami para sa Game Three,” the four-time PBA champion vowed.
