San Miguel Beer flaunted its depth and took down TNT, 109-100, to reset their best-of-seven PBA Philippine Cup Finals on equal footing at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday, Aug. 24.
The Beermen made sure that there would be no dramatic finish at the end as they pulled away early in the final frame to create the much-needed separation and enough breathing room to endure a late run from the Tropang Giga and erase the bitter taste of their Game 1 loss.
Heavily riding the broad shoulders of June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez in the series opener, the Beermen shared the scoring load with six players finishing in double-figures led by Vic Manuel who, after only mustering nine points in Game 1, bounced back with a playoff career-high of 20 points.
Perez continued to lead the way for the Beermen with 23 points while Marcio Lassiter also exploded and chipped in 17 built on three triples, one of which capped a blistering 16-1 run bridging the third and the final frame that gave the Beermen a comfortable 95-80 lead with 7:49 left in the contest.
Fajardo posted 13 points and eight rebounds while Mo Tautuaa and Jericho Cruz bounced back with 12 and 11, respectively.
TNT, despite the absence of head coach Chot Reyes, looked poised to drag the game to another grind-out affair behind a huge offensive night from RR Pogoy who torched the net with 28 points powered by six triples.
The Tropang Giga kept in step with the Beermen up until the end of the third quarter, 79-all, before a Cruz triple triggered the telling run. The defense also suddenly woke up in the final frame for SMB, keeping TNT scoreless for a good stretch at the onset of the payoff period, to which the Beermen took full advantage as Manuel, Tautuaa and Lassiter found the mark on the offensive end.
Pogoy was also held scoreless after scoring all of his output in the first three quarters. Castro, who tried to will his team back into the game late in the final frame, paced the Tropa with 15 points while Mikey Williams was held to single digits with seven points.