San Miguel Beer flirted with disaster before staving off pesky NLEX, 98-89, to start its redemption tour in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup on the right foot Saturday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

CJ Perez exploded for 28 points, including the go-ahead basket to stop the Beermen’s bleeding late in the fourth quarter after seeing their 15-point lead wiped out.

San Miguel, raring to bounce back after missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years in the Commissioner’s Cup, displayed composure amid the Road Warriors’ furious fightback.

“We have a game plan for the endgame, but the defense of NLEX made it difficult for our offense and they knew what to do. June Mar (Fajardo) wasn’t able to take a lot of shots because of their defense,” Beermen coach Leo Austria said.

“Credit to NLEX because they were down by 15 points, but they were able to come back.”     

Juami Tiongson added 17 markers capped by a crucial triple with 1:27 left, shattering the second and last deadlock of the ballgame at 85.

San Miguel then iced it from the charity stripes in a 10-4 closing run.      

Fajardo, who was elevated to the PBA 50 Greatest Players list recently, had 13 points on 5-of-7 field goal shooting while Don Trollano fired 12 markers for the Beermen.

San Miguel led all the way and even erected a 45-30 advantage in the first half. The Road Warriors slowly chipped away their deficit, unleashing a 14-4 rally to tie it at 83 after two foul shots from Michael Miranda with 2:25 left.

Perez put the Beermen back on top before Robert Bolick tied it again at 85 with 1:43 left.     

Miranda had 15 points including two four-pointers while Bolick struggled from the field with 2-of-11 clip for 12 points but still tallied eight assists for NLEX.

Javee Mocon and Xyrus Torres had 11 markers each while JB Bahio got 10 points and nine boards.

The scores:

SAN MIGUEL (98) --- Perez 28, Tiongson 17, Fajardo 13, Trollano 12, Lassiter 8, Cahilig 6, Tautuaa 6, Teng 6, Brondial 2, Rosales 0, Ross 0

NLEX (89) --- Miranda 15, Bolick 12, Mocon 11, Torres 11, Bahio 10, Ramirez 8, Alas 8, Herndon 7, Semerad 3, Nieto 2, Valdez 2, Rodger 0

QUARTERS: 28-20, 55-43, 75-65, 98-89