San Miguel Beer came out like a house on fire from the three-point line and left TNT in the dust, 114-96, in Game 6 of their best-of-seven Philippine Cup Finals series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday, Sept. 2.
Fighting with their backs against the wall, the Beermen showed sheer determination to extend the game to a sudden death – the same resolve that allowed them to come out unscathe, 7-0, in all of their do-or-die games under coach Leo Austria in the Finals of the Philippine Cup before this game including the historic "Beeracle run" in the 2016.
SMB fired from all cylinders and torched the net with Simon Enciso, CJ Perez and Marcio Lassiter drilling treys after treys to pounce on the depleted Tropang Giga who were without star guard Jayson Castro, Ryan Reyes and Glenn Khobuntin.
Enciso finished with a conference-best output of 20 points, 17 of which he rifled in the second quarter that helped the Beermen establish a 26-point lead, 56-30, with 7:02 to go in the first half.
Lassiter, likewise, buried six triples to finish with 22 while Perez and Mo Tautuaa added 20 and 15 points respectively. June Mar Fajardo didn’t have to carry much of the load for the Beermen, posting just 10 points although he had 12 rebounds and five assists.
“We will not concentrate on one player, especially June Mar. I want everybody to be involved, especially mga shooters namin, and that’s what happened tonight,” said Austria as the Beermen shot 16-of-35 from the three-point line.
RR Pogoy was the lone bright spot for TNT after unloading 31 points. Mikey Williams’ scoring slump also came at the worst time for the Tropa as the prolific scorer could only muster two points on a measly 1-of-13 shooting including a 0-of-8 clip from beyond the arc.
Perez and Lassiter sizzled right from the get-go, drilling six three-pointers to quickly build a 16-point lead, 40-24, at the end of the first 12 minutes of the contest.
The Tropang Giga, though, gained some momentum heading into the break behind Pogoy who carried the fight for TNT with 18 first-half points to spearhead a 20-7 rally and come within 13, 63-50, at the break.
TNT had its chances in the third frame, cutting the lead down to single digits numerous times but just couldn’t break into the nine-point barrier SMB had put up.