Beermen knot semis series, 1-1

San Miguel Beer turned to Terrence Romeo in bringing down Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in a 131-125 Game 2 overtime win to level the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup best-of-seven semifinals series, 1-1, Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The guard’s torrid shooting after a cold first three quarters carried the Beermen past a hard-fighting Gin Kings, who erased an 11-point deficit in the fourth period to force the extension.

Romeo scored 22 of his 26 points in the fourth period and overtime for San Miguel, which showed better effort in defending the four-point area after getting torched by Justin Brownlee with five quadruples in Game 1.

“They got challenged especially when Ginebra came back from an 11-point deficit. So we just stuck to our gameplan. We just stuck with what we do in practice,” Beermen coach Jorge Gallent said.

“They didn’t panic and we just went through the flow or our offense and I think we did a better job defensively today.”

Game 3 is set on Sunday at the Dasmarinas Arena in Cavite.

EJ Anosike led San Miguel with 35 points and nine rebounds, CJ Perez had a double-double of 28 markers and 12 boards while big man June Mar Fajardo flirted with a triple-double of 23 points, 21 rebounds and six assists.

Still, it was Romeo who stole the spotlight.

Romeo tied the extension to 117 with a trey before hitting a go-ahead four-pointer in a 9-0 run sealed by a Marcio Lassiter basket for a 123-117 Beermen lead.

San Miguel cut its deficit to three, 126-123, after a Maverick Ahanmisi trey with 53.1 seconds left. Anosike answered with two charities before Ginebra forward Japeth Aguilar scored off a tip-in to turn the game into a single-possession ballgame with 20 ticks remaining.

Jericho Cruz sealed it from the line with three freethrows.

The Beermen went up, 90-79, with less than 10 minutes left in regulation but the Gin Kings slowly trimmed it down before Scottie Thompson knotted the count at 97 with a trey with 5:06 left.

Brownlee hit a quadruple to put Ginebra on top, 102-99, followed by a split by Ahanmisi from the line. Romeo hit a trey and Anosike got a basket before Brownlee answered with a triple for a 108-106 Gin Kings advantage with 18.8 seconds left.

Perez nailed a four-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining only for Ahanmisi to tie it at 110 after getting fouled in the last 1.3 ticks in regulation. Perez threw a half-court heave for the last attempt that just bounced off the board as the buzzer sounded.  

Brownlee had 39 points on 15-of-30 field goal shooting and grabbed 15 rebounds, Aguilar had 29 markers while Scottie Thompson got 16 points, 10 assists and six boards for Ginebra, which lost for the first time in five games in the playoffs after sweeping Meralco in the quarterfinals.   

Ahanmisi had 15 points and Stephen Holt finished with 14 for the Gin Kings.

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL (131) --- Anosike 35, Perez 28, Romeo 26, Fajardo 23, Lassiter 12, Cruz 5, Tautuaa 2, Ross 0, Rosales 0, Trollano 0, Enciso 0, Manuel 0

GINEBRA (125) --- Brownlee 39, J.Aguilar 29, Thompson 16, Ahanmisi 15, Holt 14, Abarrientos 4, Tenorio 3, Cu 2, Devance 2, Pinto 1, Pessumal 0, Adamos 0

Quarters: 22-24, 51-47, 85-76, 110-110, 131-125