At the buzzer, the San Miguel Beermen were all on top of Marcio Lassiter on the floor in a frenzied celebration.
For Lassiter saved their night, firing away a go-for-broke three-pointer that allowed the Beermen to pull off another escape act and seize the pivotal 2-1 lead over the Star Hotshots in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-five semi-final showdown at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Wednesday night.
Lassiter grabbed a crucial offensive rebound and drained a trey off the glass with 1.9 ticks to go as the Beermen squeaked past the Hotshots, 111-110 – 48 hours after a 77-76 nail-biter in the previous game.
“Nanalo kami one point in Game Two at ngayon one point uli. It doesn’t matter to me for as long as we get the Ws,” said SMB coach Leo Austria.
“One-point win the last time and one-point win tonight, and we’re one win away from making the finals,” Austria added. “If you’re in their situation, you’ll do everything to tie. But we have the momentum on our side, I hope di namin ito pabayaan.”
Sponsored content:
The Beermen take their first of two cracks at the finals at 7 p.m. Friday back at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
The Hotshots were the ones looked headed to securing the 2-1 series lead when Chris Ross failed to connect on a drive with seven seconds to go and the Beermen trailing at 108-110.
But Lassiter was in the right place at the right time, gaining the rebound before banging away the game-winning trey off Justin Melton.
“Swerte talaga napunta ang bola kay Marcio,” said Austria. “He had the open lane to the basket with Star in penalty situation. Pero he’s a great fan of Golden State Warriors at nag-ala Stephen Curry sya.”
In nailing his second triple in the night and a total of 12 markers, Lassiter saved the great efforts of Charles Rhodes, June Mar Fajardo and Chris Ross, and negated Ricardo Ratliffe’s outstanding near triple-double job.
Sponsored content:
Ratliffe delivered game-highs of 44 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists, and personally pushed the Hotshots ahead, 110-108, at the finish after scoring all of their last 10 points from 100-104 down.
Paul Lee, Ian Sangalang and Jio Jalalon also did wonderful jobs, contributing 21, 11 and 10 points, respectively, as the Hotshots dragged the Beermen in another fierce duel marked by eight lead changes and seven deadlocks.
Rhodes came through with 36 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks in an emotional performance where he’s seen in separate verbal skirmishes with Sangalang and Marc Pingris.
He picked up a fifth foul with 2:40 left to play but managed to stay in the game all the way to the finish.
The two imports buckled down to work right away, each submitting 18 points in the first half.
With Fajardo also collecting an early double-digit number, the Beermen built a 12-point lead at 46-34 before settling for a 56-52 margin at halftime.
