Beermen fight back, seize 2-0 Finals lead

THE REFEREE calls a foul as SMB’s June Mar Fajardo follows up a miss off Alaska’s Sonny Thoss in last night’s Game 2 at Smart Araneta Coliseum. PBA IMAGES

San Miguel Beer won for the second straight time Sunday  night, and though this one was a far cry from the 30-point beating it handed Alaska in Game 1, the Beermen made sure this one hurt the Aces more.

The Beermen came back from nine points down with seven minutes left, pummeling the Aces with a barrage of threes in the endgame to pull off a 103-95 decision for a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoffs for the PBA Governors’ Cup title at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Marcio Lassiter drilled the two triples that hurt the Aces the most before Arizona Reid polished off the Aces to highlight a 37-point, seven-assist performance that came on the night he narrowly lost the Best Import award to Alaska counterpart Romeo Travis.

The loss was doubly bitter than the 78-108 shellacking the Aces took in Game 1 on Friday because Alaska blew a 95-90 lead by going scoreless in the final 2:39.

San Miguel scored 25 points inside the final 6:42, draining four of 17 triples in that stretch by moving the ball better to find the open man, one aspect that Alaska coach Alex Compton never got to read the entire night.

“Two-zero is not safe,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria said. “We have to keep on doing what we are doing right. We have to anticipate the adjustments that they will make.”

San Miguel blew a 10-point lead in the first half and trailed, 78-87, only to come alive in the final 6:42 with a closing run that made Compton shake his head in shock later.

“Twenty-five points for a quarter for us is high,” Compton said. “They just exploded in the last six minutes.”

Lassiter went on to finish with 17 points built around five triples while Reid connected from afar four times. Lassiter’s total conversions from trifectaville was the exact number the Aces made for the night.

Travis scored 23 points and Compton actually got five locals tossing in at least 10 each only to lose again.

June Mar Fajardo scored 16 points and had 14 rebounds. He won a third Best Player of the Conference award before tip-off.

The scores:
SAN MIGUEL  103—Reid 37, Lassiter 17, Fajardo 16, Cabagnot 13, Ross 6, Lutz 5, Santos 4, Tubid 3, Semerad 2, Espinas 0.
ALASKA 95—Travis 23, Thoss 14, Abueva 13, Casio 11, Banchero 10, Baguio 10, Dela Rosa 6, Jazul 6, Manuel 2, Exciminiano 0, Hontiveros 0, Eman 0, Dela Cruz 0.
Quarters: 28-24, 47-44, 73-73, 103-95