PBA finals: San Mig Coffee nips Petron to even series

Photo by Nuki Sabio/PBA IMAGE

MANILA, Philippines — San Mig Coffee hung tough and nipped Petron, 88-86, Friday night to even the series anew in the 2013 PBA Governors’ Cup finals at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Mixers, after coming out hot, lost grip of a 28-point lead in just a snap and banked on freethrows down the stretch to secure a much needed 2-2 tie.

The Mixers can get advantage for the first time in the best-of-seven series on Sunday in game five at the Smart Araneta Coliseum

“They just showed how explosive of a team they are to come back quickly and that fast,” said an exhausted head coach Tim Cone.

It was a stark contrast from San Mig Coffee’s dismal game three performance as the Mixers, this time, pushed the lead to as wide as 20 at the end of the first quarter.

But that hardly mattered down the stretch when Petron seized the lead for the first time with under eight minutes to play, and even hiked it to four, 77-73.

Mark Barroca stepped up for the Mixers and scored seven of his 12 late in the fourth quarter, while Marc Pingris also chipped in freebies to get the lead back.

“In the fourth, we can’t regret losing the lead. We gotta play it from here. We got to keep playing forward,” Cone said.

All but two of the fielded players from the Mixers’ side wound up with double digits with Marqus Blakely and Pingris scoring 19 and 15, respectively.

Elijah Milsap’s tremendous effort was spoiled as the Boosters’ import even singlehandedly outscored the entire Mixers’ squad in the third, 17-15, for 33 points.

June Mar Fajardo added 20 points and 26 boards while newly crowned MVP Arwind Santos was limited to just eight markers including a crucial TO in the dying seconds.