SMBeermen make it even-steven at 2-2

MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel Beer avoided falling into a deep 1-3 hole and transformed its livewire showdown with the TNT KaTropa into a 50/50 contest.

Pushed to the wall, the Beermen fought back hard and hammered out a 106-101 victory over the KaTropa to tie the PBA Commissioner’s Cup title series at 2-2 last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Chris McCullough, June Mar Fajardo, Alex Cabagnot and Chris Ross took charge of the mop-up operations as the San Miguel foiled TNT’s bid to steal it from 15 points down and move a W away from the coveted crown.

“This game was really important for us as we didn’t want to be at a 1-3 situation which is hard to recover from,” said SMB coach Leo Austria. “We were so focused on the game, we followed our gameplan and I hope this will give us momentum and confidence going to Game 5.”

The troika of McCullough (27 points, 22 rebounds, four assists), Cabagnot (25 markers and five feeds), and Fajardo (22-7) delivered heavily on offense while Ross made one key defensive stop and two insurance freebies in the closeout. Fajardo sank a crucial basket that restored a fresh 100-96 spread with 27.7 seconds left, and Ross’ swipe on a driving Jayson Castro led to two charities for Cabagnot for a six-point cushion going to the last 16.3 seconds.

“It’s really hard to win against TNT, they’re really prepared and very eager to beat us knowing this is their opportunity to do so. We’re lucky tonight in the end game and we’re able to hold our four-point lead and knock down some big shots,” said Austria.

On the night he won the Best Import honors, Terrence Jones played a full 48 minutes, firing 32 with 16 boards, six assists, six steals and two blocks. Troy Rosario added 17 and Castro, the newly minted Gatorade Best Player of the Conference, had 17-8-8.

The Beermen unleashed a telling 12-0 blast in the third to take control, 76-65, then stretched their lead to 84-69 early in the fourth.

Coach Leo Austria’s squad still held an eight-point margin until the last five-minute mark of the fourth before Jones, Rosario and Castro willed TNT back to within 96-98 with 40 ticks to play.

The scores:

San Miguel 106 – McCullough 27, Cabagnot 25, Fajardo 22, Pessumal 14, Ross 7, Standhardinger 5, Romeo 4, Santos 2.

TNT 101 – Jones 32, Rosario 24, Castro 17, Trollano 16, Pogoy 9, Heruela 3, Casino 0, Magat 0, Carey 0.

Quarterscores: 31-22, 51-52, 82-69, 106-101