Trailing during the game’s first three quarters, the reigning Philippine Cup champions and top seeded San Miguel Beermen managed to stave off the Star Hotshots in a grueling 103-99 victory to advance to the next round held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday evening.
“The experience we had in the past conferences, plus our championship last All-Filipino were big. They (SMB) know the glory of being here, they know the importance of this game. We have a chance of a 3-peat. That’s a big shot but I’m happy because Chris and Tyler worked really really hard (fourth quarter).” said by a relieved Coach Leo Austria after the match.
Entering the fourth period, the Beermen faced a nine point hole at 87-78. Their quick 6-0 run was answered by back to back triples by Justin Melton and Alex Mallari. However, they picked up their defense late, while their towering trio of Tyler Wilkerson, Arwind Santos and June Mar Fajardo controlled the interior baskets and crashed the boards for SMB.
With under three minutes to go, the Beermen successfully achieved in drawing a deadlock at 97. Afterwards, their pressure led to multiple chances for grabbing the lead. Despite missing long-ranged shots, Chris Ross and Arwind Santos snatched key offensive rebounds for SMB.
Ross would also come up big in the clutch, scoring four pivotal points down the stretch to make it 103-99 with 30 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Star failed to convert on their end of the floor, giving the night to the Beermen.
For Austria, the team can take a bit of a breather after a scare of being upset by the eight seeded Star crew. After the game, he gave props to the tough Hotshots for a grueling series.
“I have to congratulate Coach Jason (Webb) for the hardwork and they had a good game plan against us and they really scared us.”
Star had their best scoring quarter of the match during the third frame wherein they outscored San Miguel, 33-26. Alex Mallari delivered seven of his ten points in the quarter.
However, Wilkerson and his team had the final laugh as the reinforcement had another monstrous performance, ending the night with 46 points on 15/29 shooting, 17 boards and two boards.
After the match, he stressed on what lifted their team to victory. “Defense, defense defense. Star is a very good team and it’s really tough for us since the first game. We stayed focus on defense, made stops and converted it on our end.”
San Miguel had more rebounds, 46-41, and scored 15 more points from the foul stripe. In addition, they only had ten miscues while maintaining a 60% clip from the two-point range.
This is the Beermen’s first appearance in the Commissioner’s Cup semis since 2011. The final four cast will be completed on Friday as Alaska and Talk ‘N Text battle it out for the last semis seat.
The scores:
San Miguel (103) – Wilkerson 46, Lassiter 17, Ross 13, Santos 10, Fajardo 9, Espinas 8, Cabagntot 0, Tubid 0, David 0
Star (99) – Ratliffe 24, Simon 21, Pingris 18, Mallari 10, Maliksi 9, Barroca 8, Melton 5, Sangalang 4, Reavis 0
Quarterscores: 21-29, 52-54, 78-87, 103-99
