After a whirlwind campaign, defending champion San Miguel Beer and Alaska go at it one final time in the Smart Bro-PBA Philippine Cup Wednesday night, in a Game 7 very few thought was even possible.
But a rallying Beermen and a momentarily derailed Aces somehow got into this knockout match where both will end up writing a big piece of league folklore, whichever way the game goes.
The Beermen will try to become the first squad to charge back from a 0-3 deficit to win it all in the 7 p.m. contest slated at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
San Miguel Beer’s attempt to defend its crown and increase the grand total of the league’s winningest franchise has become a side treat to its bid to climb out of that series hole.
READ: A Game 7 for the books
Alaska, meanwhile, will come into the game trying to right a ship that has been listing the last three games and snap the league’s longest active all-Filipino title drought.
The Beermen will be riding incredible momentum going into the one-miss-you-die match after having won three straight games to level the series.
But that doesn’t mean the Aces have lost faith they can finally finish off a team they dominated early in the series.
“I’m excited in believing that something great is going to happen (for us),” Alaska coach Alex Compton said, as he takes another shot at beating good friend Leo Austria in a series for the first time.
Austria seemingly has had Compton’s number, winning two championship duels last year—a 4-3 triumph in the Philippine Cup and a 4-0 sweep in the Governors’ Cup.
Austria has already steered San Miguel to uncharted league territory, in fact.
“I’m excited in believing that something great is going to happen (for us).”
No team that trailed 0-3 in a best-of-seven series has come back to tie it.
“It’s anybody’s game now,” Austria said. “This is history in the making for us.”
Both teams were grateful for the four-day break, having played a combined 17 games in over two weeks. For Alaska, the lull somewhat stalls San Miguel’s momentum.
For the Beermen, it gives June Mar Fajardo the chance to get healthier after twisting his knee in the series-clincher against Rain or Shine and missing the first four games of the Finals.
Fajardo played in the last two games with an obvious limp, averaging more than 14 points and six rebounds while playing at what his coach said was “70-percent capacity.”
“I don’t care about the percentages anymore,” Fajardo said of his condition in Filipino. “For sure, we will have a break after this game, so it will be all-out (for me).”
Vic Manuel and Calvin Abueva, the Aces’ undersized but big-hearted frontline, are again expected to lead Alaska with Abueva promising to lay it all down on the floor—as always— in the final game of the tournament.
“There’s no tomorrow after that game, and we’re excited,” Abueva told the Inquirer in Filipino a couple of nights ago. “We still have a chance and that’s the most important thing.”