The San Miguel Beermen now have a solid 2-0 lead against the Phoenix Fuel Masters in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinals, as they took the win home with a 92-82 comeback last Monday, April 15 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Fuel Masters were actually leading for the first three quarters, with their biggest lead at 12 points, but San Miguel showed their determination in the last 10 minutes of the match after Marcio Lassiter shot a crucial three that put them ahead, 84-80, and fired from there. The small Filipino-American forward ended up being the highest scorer for the Beermen at 24 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. He was followed by Cebuano Junemar Fajardo who had a double-double at 19 points and 18 rebounds, while Terrence Romeo contributed 14. For Phoenix, it was Calvin Abueva who led the way at 16 points, but sharing the ball was evident as well with Matthew Wright at 13 points, and Jason Perkins, Justin Chua, and RJ Jazul all with 12 points each. Unfortunately, the number one seeded team was not able to keep that consistency until the final buzzer.
Beermen’s Player of the Game Lassiter shared during the post-game interview, “We knew that in the first half we weren’t playing the way we should. We knew in the second half that we needed to play San Miguel basketball. Share the ball, make the extra pass, get stops and keep grinding and grinding it.” He continued, “We push ourselves everyday in practice. Each player on our team can step up. A lot of guys stepped up today.”
SMB Coach Leo Austria added in Filipino, “We thought we won’t escape tonight.”
Game Three of the rivalry between Phoenix and San Miguel is on Sunday, April 21 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. In retrospect, Lassiter told the media, “It’s not over yet. We need two wins. It’s gonna be a dog fight. It’s gonna be a physical series, we can’t be complacent. We have to come out on Sunday locked and loaded.”