SAN Miguel Beer narrowly avoided a monumental collapse with a nail-biting 88-86 squeaker over gritty NorthPort yesterday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
CJ Perez and Arwind Santos came up with clutch baskets inthe last two minutes, enabling the Beermen to shrug off a blown 16-point lead and a nine-point fourth quarter.
Both teams went into the game looking for a second straight win in three games, but it was coach Leo Austria’s charges who came out victors in the end.
“I hope this momentum magtuloy-tuloy na because we have another game on Wednesday and after Blackwater we have two big teams, Ginebra and Magnolia,” said Austria.
“This (win) is badly needed and I’m happy that we snatched this game dahil this could give us some momentum going to the next three games.”
Perez wound up with 18 points on top of eight rebounds and five steals while Santos, who turned 40 last June 10, had 17 points, five boards and three blocked shots to lead SMB.
In the other game, Paul Lee scored six of his 22 points inthe last three minutes and boosted Magnolia to an 89-79 victory over Ginebra and a share of the early lead.
Ian Sangalang added 17 points and Andy Barroca and Calvin Abueva 15 apiece as the Hotshots improved to 3-0 that tied them with idle Alaska at the top.
Stanley Pringle had 22 points and Christian Standhardinger had 13 points and 11 rebounds as Ginebra, which came fighting back from a 16-point deficit, absorbed its second loss in three games.
