Marcio Lassiter played a major role in San Miguel Beer pushing TNT to a deciding seventh game in their PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series.
Lassiter had his best scoring game of the series with 19 points as the Beermen denied the Tropang Giga a spot in the Finals by claiming a 103-90 win Friday, Oct. 15 at the Don Honorio Ventura State University in Bacolor, Pampanga.
His four triples in the first half, with three coming in the opening period, enabled SMB to play role-reversal after being handed a 20-point loss by TNT in Game 5.
In that contest, Lassiter produced just five points on 2-of-8 shooting.
“Game 5 just wasn’t my night,” said Lassiter. “When I come into the next game, it’s a brand new ball game. I don’t think about the last game. I focus on what I can do better and just be prepared in getting ready to knock down those shots.”
He also explained that opportunities to convert from downtown came knocking after TNT focused mostly on guarding SMB bigs June Mar Fajardo and Mo Tautuaa.
“Tonight, it was just more of the defense collapsing on our bigs so I was getting the opportunity to take the shot. I just came in prepared, got some shots up before the game. Just kept on trusting and believing. My teammates were believing in me and giving me passes and I just rode the hot hand.”
Game 7 is set Sunday with the winner facing Magnolia Pambansang Manok in another best-of-seven affair for the championship.
Experience may be one of the advantages the Beermen carry against the Tropang Giga, something Lassiter hopes would be a big factor when the two teams meet for the final time this conference.
“We have a lot of experience coming into this Game 7. We want to bank on our experience. Also, we have to ride this momentum going into Game 7 and keep on believing,” said Lassiter.
“We knew that it was a knockout game (Game 6) today, we needed to put all our effort into this one. It’s going to be tough. It’s a quick turnaround and we have to also put all our effort into the next game. It’s going to be a war out there.”