Cabagnot clutch anew in Beermen's squeaker over Painters

MANILA, Philippines – With their unbeaten streak on the line, San Miguel's Alex Cabagnot did what he does best -- deliver in crunch time.

Trailing Rain or Shine with 5.2 ticks left in the game Friday, the guard got the leather from teammate RR Garcia. He shuffled his feet after launching for the left side then pulled-up with one foot dangerously close to the 3-point line.

And the result was as cardiac as the execution --a tied game with 1.8 left for Rain or Shine to break it. Come extra period, June Mar Fajardo took over, and the Beermen never looked back.

"I knew I'm going to shoot it," Cabagnot said. "Coach (Leo Austria) had something but the intensity --- you know I just have take those kind of shots."

"It'll be a hindrance if I don't do that for the team," he offered. "The team trusted and I just have to take full responsibility."

Even after taking care of probably their biggest test in the No. 2 and 5-3 Elasto Painters, Cabagnot is just relieved they're able to get one of their many short-term goals done. Now comes the hard part.

"We clinched top two (spot) so that’s a great thing," he said. "That’s just one of the short-term goals that we put on the drawing board so I’m glad that we got to cross that out of the picture."

"We’ll just gonna try not to create bad habits in the last two games we’re gonna go to Cebu it’s we have two games in two weeks it’s a long way, it’s a long layover we’ll just continue to play fundamentally," he added.

San Miguel, which has long been guarranteed a spot in the quarterfinals, will have a penultimate clash with GlobalPort before ending the elimination round against TNT.