June Mar Fajardo flirted with a triple-double as San Miguel Beer escaped Terrafirma with a nail-biting 109-108 win in overtime to clinch the top seed in the standings and claim one of the two twice-to-beat incentives in the quarterfinals in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup on Thursday, July 14.
Fajardo came an assist shy of a triple-double although he managed to reset his career-high in dimes with nine assists. The 6-foot-10 behemoth also had 26 points and 10 rebounds but had to take charge in the extra period to shake off a gritty Dyip side, who, despite being winless, stood ground against the league leading SMB.
Fajardo dropped nine of his total in overtime including the go-ahead and-1 play with 19 seconds left to frustrate the Dyip and record their ninth win in 10 games.
SMB did that even without head coach Leo Austria who was under health and safety protocol as well as Jericho Cruz who had been leading the way for the Beermen in their last two games.
Marcio Lassiter stepped up and broke out of his personal slump with 23 points while CJ Perez added 20. Von Pessumal and Mo Tautuaa also breached the double-digit mark with 13 and 10 respectively
The Beermen though had to overcome a huge scare put up by the Dyip who sent the game to the overtime after two huge back-to-back triples from JP Calvo. Fajardo had the chance to take the victory in regulation but missed the hook shot. Aldrech Ramos also had the same chance on the other end but came up empty with his potential game-winning trey.
Fajardo then made up for the miss in regulation as the Beermen went almost exclusively to the six-time MVP down low and punished the Terrafirma frontline in OT. Staring at a two-point deficit, Fajardo put the Beermen ahead by one but collectively held their breath as Javi Gomez De Liano came up short with his layup at the buzzer.
Eric Camson paced Terrafirma with 20 points while Calvo and Andreas Cahilig chipped in 19 and 17 points respectively.