Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — After building an 85-74 advantage in the third period, the Star Hotshots looked poised to knock off the San Miguel Beermen despite a twice-to-beat advantage in the series.
But the Beermen refused to go down.
The San Miguel Beermen bucked an 11-point deficit to eliminate the Star Hotshots, 103-99, in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday (April 20) at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Reinforcement Tyler Wilkerson led all scorers with 46 markers, while Marcio Lassiter chipped in with 17.
The Beermen started to chip away at the Hotshot’s advantage early in the final period, before finally drawing level, 99-all, through a June Mar Fajardo bucket with 2:13 left to play.
Things went from bad to worse for Star, after struggling to break through the Beermen’s defense and going scoreless for the rest of the game.
After Chris Ross flubbed a pair of shots from the charity stripe, the Hotshots had 32 ticks on the clock to mount an improbable comeback with the scores at 99-103. But with no timeouts left, Star stagnated on offense and inadvertently burned too much time on the clock before missing their final attempt.
The Beermen advanced to their first semifinal appearance in the Commissioner’s Cup since their revival as a franchise in 2011.
Ricardo Ratliffe and PJ Simon paced the Hotshots with 24 and 21 points, respectively.
According to San Miguel coach Leo Austria, their victory was due to their player’s lack of experience in losing.
“Its very obvious that the players aren’t used to losing,” said Austria. “They know what is the glory of winning, and they know what the importance of this game is for us.”
Austria will hope they will keep that mentality, as they go on to face the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in a best-of-five series in the semifinals.
