Boosters, Mixers eye crucial victory

SAN MIG Coffee guard Mark Barroca’s (No. 14) late-game heroics sent Ronald Tubid and the Petron Blaze Boosters tumbling in Game 4. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

PETRON Blaze coach Gee Abanilla describes it as a learning experience, San Mig Coffee’s Tim Cone said the scrambling Game 4 win felt like a loss.

And with the all-important fifth game up today, no team seems to stand out as the clear favorite when the Boosters and the Mixers break their 2-2 tie in the best-of-seven championship playoff for the PBA Governors’ Cup at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

“Interestingly enough, even though we won Game 4, it still felt like a loss to us,” Cone said in a text message after scraping through for an 88-86 win despite blowing a 28-point first half lead. “The good news is that it’s again another reminder of how well we need to play to beat Petron.”

The Mixers, the losing finalists to Rain or Shine last season, lost a 49-21 second-quarter lead and even trailed by four heading into the final six minutes on Friday before coming out on top of a wild endgame to level the series.

Petron has been in command of this title playoffs since the start, and Abanilla more or less knows that this is his championship to lose, especially with Cone having no answer to June Mar Fajardo and import Elijah Millsap proving to be unstoppable.

Fajardo and Millsap carried the Boosters yet again on Friday, with the 6-foot-9 center from Cebu finishing with 20 points and flirted with breaking the league’s oldest standing rebounding record by a local.

Fajardo, the first overall pick in the last Draft, had 26 rebounds with still five minutes to go, finishing just three shy of the local mark established by the late Marcelo Simbulan for 7-Up in the league’s maiden year in 1975.

That Petron almost won Game 4 despite trailing big speaks of how strong and explosive the team is, even if the Boosters might miss the services of Mythical Second Team member Alex Cabagnot for the third straight game.

“We just have to take care of business, cherish the moment of the up and coming games and enjoy the ride,” Abanilla said. “We take responsibility for what happened in the last game as a team. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.”

Abanilla rued the fact that they allowed the Mixers to get off to a rip-roaring start.

“We cannot afford to have them start that way,” Abanilla said.