Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MACAU—San Miguel couldn’t complete its comeback to fall to Zhejiang Guangsha, 91-89, in the bronze medal game of the East Asia Super Leaue: The Terrific 12 Sunday night at Tap Seac Sports Pavilion here.
The Beermen trailed, 86-77, with 1:37 left but slowly chipped away at the lead to come to as close as two points, 91-89, after a Dez Wells 3-pointer that capped off 12-5 run with 2.6 seconds left.
Wells then, nearly stole Cheng Liu’s inbound pass but the ball sailed out of bounds with 0.6 seconds left leaving the Beermen with not enough time for a game-winning heave.
San Miguel swept Group B in the eliminations but fizzled out in the semifinals.
Already depleted with the absence of June Mar Fajardo and Marcio Lassiter, the Beermen played without supporting big man Christian Standhardinger, who was feeling pain in his left knee.
“It’s the health of the players that played a factor and today we didn’t have Christian if he was here we might have won the third place,” said San Miguel head coach Leo Austria.
“We don’t want to aggravate his injuries in his knees because there’s a little bit of fluid.”
Wells finished with 33 points, five rebounds, and four assists, to lead the Beermen while Lester Propser had 16 points and 11 boards.
Alex Cabagnot and Kelly Nabong added 15 and 14 points, respectively, off San Miguel’s bench.
Jinqiu Hu had 31 points and six rebounds to lead the Lions.