ALEX Cabagnot (left) of San Miguel Beer and Erik Menk of Alaska eye the loose ball in Game 5 of the Philippine Cup Finals. AUGUST DELA CRUZ
SAN MIGUEL Beer, the PBA’s oldest franchise, guns for the title that has been so slippery the past dozen years or so when the Beermen try to close out the Alaska Aces in Game 6 of their Philippine Cup title showdown at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
With victories in the last two games for a 3-2 lead, the Beermen are installed as the logical picks to snuff the challenge of the hard-fighting Aces in the 7:30 p.m. contest and win a first all-Filipino crown since 2001.
Since that time, San Miguel has only won import-flavored tournaments and the Beermen will actually be gunning to win just their sixth AFC and finally fulfill their immense potential since the arrival of 6-foot-10 June Mar Fajardo three seasons ago.
“Now that we have an opportunity, why not?” San Miguel coach Leo Austria said on Friday night after a tightrope 93-88 decision.
There have been 33 teams that have taken 3-2 leads in a title playoff in the league’s history with 22 of them going all the way to win the title.
Alaska has managed to overturn that deficit on three occasions and interestingly enough, two of those comebacks came against San Miguel teams. So far, Alaska has become a master of comebacks in a best-of-seven title series.
If the Aces win tonight, Game 7 will be played Wednesday.
Fajardo, the most celebrated rookie to come out of the Draft in years in 2012, has turned a strong team already boasting of Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz even more formidable.
San Miguel struggled in this tournament even when Danny Seigle and Danny Ildefonso were the backbone of the franchise in the 2000s.
Fajardo and Santos did a lot of damage on Alaska on Friday by scoring 19 points each and combining for 22 rebounds and 10 shot blocks.
Game 5 was the closest that was fought thus far with Alaska giving way only in the end. The two Alaska victories have come from magnificent rallies in Games 1 and 3.
“They’re still the Goliath, and we still hope to be David,” Alaska coach Alex Compton.
San Miguel has also played great defense the last two games, particularly on JV Casio, who was scoreless for the second straight night.
Casio has taken a total of 10 attempts in the last two contests and has failed to find the mark. His scoreless stint in Game 4 was the first time in his very impressive career.
“There are some things in the team that is family business,” Compton said when pressed to state if Casio was being bothered by something. “I hope you guys (media) understand.”