Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — San Miguel Beer’s Marcio Lassiter broke out in Game 2 on Saturday (July 4), draining 10 three-pointers on his way to career-high 31 points.
On Monday (July 6), veteran playmaker Alex Cabagnot followed suit.
Only this time, the Beermen were able to pull through and regain the upperhand in their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup semifinal duel opposite Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
San Miguel bounced back from the Game 2 meltdown behind Cabagnot, who showed his old explosive form after firing 26 points on an impressive 5-of-7 shooting from downtown.
He also had nine assists, five rebounds, and three steals in the rousing 114-108 victory at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
Read: Reid, Cabagnot shine as Beermen take 2-1 lead over Rain or Shine
But the 32-year-old Beerman deflected credit, attributing the win to the collective effort of the team instead.
“”I’m just glad that as a team, we stuck together. It’s kind of deflating to lose despite leading by as much 20 points, but I’m glad we just kept our eye on the prize and came together as a unit,” he said.
“There are a lot of stuff that we saw on tape that we need to handle and some issues that we needed to do on defense, and I’m glad that we picked it up and made the right adjustment.”
San Miguel is now a win shy from setting up a finals encounter with the Alaska Aces, who they beat in the Philippine Cup finals.
But the Beermen are not letting this get ahead of them.
“We’re just going to take it one practice at a time. We can’t really look far ahead to our goal and get blinded by it. So we just have to focus on one quarter at a time, one half at a time and every possession at a time,” Cabagnot said.
“Hopefully, we can make the right adjustments. And hopefully, God-willing, we can close it out on Wednesday.”
