There was excitement in the air entering Sunday night’s main event between sister teams and heated rivals San Miguel Beermen and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. With both teams struggling this conference — San Miguel held a 1-3 card, while Ginebra were down to a 1-4 slate — the two squads badly needed this game.
“We know from the start that this will be an exciting game, because both of us, at 1-3 and 1-4, are struggling this conference, and this game is very important,” reflected San Miguel head coach Leo Austria.
And it delivered.
With 22 seconds left, Joe Devance knocked down a triple to put Ginebra up 92-91. A costly turnover by June Mar Fajardo led to a split on the stripe for Sol Mercado later on, which gave the Gin Kings a two-point cushion with 3.6 seconds remaining.
Knowing his team needed to be wise to give themselves a chance to at least extend the game, Fajardo took matters into his own hands.
After catching an inbound, the 6-foot-10 big man sized up Greg Slaughter. He was able to fake out Slaughter, who sagged — thinking that Fajardo would make a pass to the cutter — then Fajardo threw up a jumper. The ball bounced off the cylinder before coming back down to extend the contest.
“Ilang seconds na lang yun, wala na. Hand[s]-off ko sana kay Alex [Cabagnot] din kaya lang na deny si siya. Jaya nag-turn ako. Suwerte na na shoot yung tira,” recalled the four-time Most Valuable Player.
“Ganun talaga. Nandiyan yung suwerte paminsan minsan.”
Now that he had given San Miguel a chance, the rest of the Beermen followed suit in overtime. Fajardo’s fellow MVP Arwind Santos took over, scoring eight of San Miguel’s 11 fourth quarter points to lift the Beermen to a 104-97 win.
“Siyempre nanalo kami as a team, matatalo kami as a team.
“Alam natin kakayahan ni Arwind — nandiyan siya palagi. Big time player siya so kaya niyang lagi niyang nagagawa mga big time shots,” beamed the 28-year-old. “Hindi na bago.”
With the win, San Miguel raised their record to 2-3. Finally, it seems that everything is clicking for the defending champions.
“We realized na we’re not playing at-par. What I mean is to the level that we’ve been in the semifinals last All-Filipino Conference,” shared Austria.
“Slowly, they understand each other, and they know the importance of chemistry. At the same time, those new players are starting to adapt to the system.”
