Chris Ross made sure that the San Miguel Beermen made a return trip to the Finals, providing a big stop against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters to pick up a 98-95 Game Four win, Friday evening at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Chris McCullough and Terrence Romeo came through on offense to save the Beermen from a 91-94 deficit before Ross prevented the Elasto Painters from coming back by stripping the ball away from James Yap to seal the win.
“Unang-una, nagpapasalamat kami sa Panginoong Maykapal at dinala na naman kami dito sa Finals. It’s nice to be back here,” said San Miguel head coach Leo Austria. “I’m sure in the Finals we’ll be facing a tough team.
“We didn’t know if we were gonna win against them. It was a fifty-fifty ball game. But the players refused to lose. A lot of good breaks we got in the last few minutes. Thank God. Talagang nagpapasalamat kami,” he added.
After dropping 51 markers back in Game Three, McCullough led San Miguel anew with 35 points, 18 rebounds, and five blocks. Alex Cabagnot supplied 21 points, while June Mar Fajardo provided 19 points and seven rebounds.
San Miguel appeared to have addressed their slow-start woes — their main issue in the series’ first games — when they jumped to a 24-11 lead, but the Elasto Painters immediately recovered to erase the double-digit deficit.
And come the third chapter, Rain or Shine would hit strides on offense, building a 60-47 advantage.
But being the comeback experts that they are, the Beermen wiped out the deficit as well. A Fajardo putback of McCullough’s miss would send the game to a 91-all deadlock with exactly four minutes remaining in the final frame.
Gabe Norwood broke the tie by hitting a corner triple with 3:41 left, but it would be the last time Rain or Shine would have the lead as McCullough and Romeo joined hands for a 7-0 run to give SMB a 98-94 lead with 1:45 to go.
Rey Nambatac split his charities with a minute left to play to make it just a three-point gap. Moments later, Javee Mocon intercepted McCullough’s pass, ran down the ball, and then located Nambatac from the left-wing beyond the arc.
Unfortunately, Nambatac missed, and the Beermen hauled it down. But the Elasto Painters managed to make stops yet again, which allowed them to call their ultimate timeout with only 9.5 seconds left in the game.
Rain or Shine decided to go to Yap for a triple to tie the game. Beau Belga handed it off to Yap as they looked for a trey from the right elbow, but Ross stripped the ball from behind. That steal sealed San Miguel’s ticket to the Finals.
“At the start of the conference, we were struggling (2-5) and we almost didn’t make it into the quarterfinals. It was just a matter of one win. But it’s a roller-coaster journey to the Finals and we will embrace this,” Austria said.
Rain or Shine was led by import Carl Montgomery with 18 points, 17 rebounds, and seven assists. Young wards Nambatac and Ed Daquioag produced 15 points apiece, while Yap chimed in 10 markers.
Game One of the San Miguel-TNT best-of-seven Finals starts on Sunday, August 4, at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The Scores:
San Miguel 98 – McCullough 35, Cabagnot 21, Fajardo 19, Standhardinger 11, Santos 5, Pessumal 3, Rosser 2, Romeo 2, Ross 0.
Rain or Shine 95 – Montgomery 18, Daquioag 15, Nambatac 15, Mocon 9, Belga 9, Torres 9, Norwood 5, Ponferada 5, Rosales 0, Borboran 0.
Quarterscores: 32-26, 41-44, 72-75, 98-95.
