San Miguel Beer takes Game 2, ties finals series

Game Sunday:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

6:15 p.m. --- San Miguel Beer vs Meralco

Marcio Lassiter rescued San Miguel Beer from the jaws of defeat with a huge three-pointer in a 95-94 escape over Meralco in Game 2 to even the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals series Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.    

Down by two with 13.2 seconds left, Lassiter sank the game-winning stepback trey after faking off Bong Quinto to tie the best-of-seven showdown to one game apiece.

The Beermen then dodged the bullet when Chris Banchero, who earlier drained a cold-blooded triple with 25.6 seconds to give the Bolts a 93-89 advantage with 25.6 seconds left, missed a contested layup on the other end.

CJ Perez, who fired back a three after Banchero’s trey, missed his two foul shots with 3.2 seconds left. Still, the breaks of the game favored the Beermen when Quinto got whistled for traveling after securing the defensive board with less than a second remaining.  

"A very good shot for CJ to bring it down to one and a good shot for Marcio to give us this victory today so kudos to both of them," San Miguel coach Jorge Gallent said.  

Game 3 is scheduled on Sunday at the same venue.  

Perez finished with 34 points on 12-of-28 shooting while Lassiter only had six points all from long distance for the Beermen.

June Mar Fajardo got 17 markers and 13 rebounds for San Miguel, which scored its first win over Meralco in the all-Filipino conference after dropping its first two meetings including an 86-93 defeat in the series opener last Wednesday.

Don Trollano and Mo Tautuaa added 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Beermen.

A telling 15-5 windup to end the third quarter by Meralco turned its six-point deficit into a 73-69 advantage heading into the final canto.

The Bolts extended their lead to 78-70 after Norbert Torres nailed a trey with under two minutes slashed off the fourth quarter.        

San Miguel quickly countered with 10 unanswered points to overtake the Bolts, 80-78, with 8:44 left after Jericho Cruz sank a technical free throw.   

Brandon Bates stopped the bleeding for the Bolts, sparking a critical 6-1 rally to reclaim the lead, 86-81.

The Beermen went back ahead, 89-88, before Quinto scored on a floater followed by Banchero's triple to push Meralco back on top.

Cliff Hodge led the Bolts with a personal conference-best 25 points and nine rebounds. Banchero, who had a costly miss in his first of two foul shots in the last 20.2 seconds of the game that could've given Meralco a three-point lead, scored 16 while Chris Newsome made 14 in a losing effort.

San Miguel had a hard time shaking off a clingy Meralco side in the first that turned into a battle of spurts.

No team led by more than seven in the first 24 minutes of action with the Beermen taking a slim 49-48 lead entering the break.   

Box scores:

SAN MIGUEL (95) --- Perez 34, Fajardo 17, Trollano 12, Tautuaa 10, Cruz 7, Lassiter 6, Ross 5, Brondial 2, Teng 2, Enciso 0

MERALCO (94) --- Hodge 25, Banchero 16, Newsome 14, Quinto 9, Maliksi 8, Rios 6, Bates 6, Torres 5, Caram 3, Pascual 2, Almazan 0, Jose 0

Quarters: 21-22, 49-48, 69-73, 95-94