MARCIO Lassiter pulled off what he failed to do the last time, hitting the game-winner as San Miguel Beer scored a 98-96 thriller over TNT yesterday and evened up their PBA Philippine Cup semifinals duel at the Don Honorio Ventura State University Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Lassiter grabbed the loose rebound off misses by teammates June Mar Fajardo and Arwind Santos and scored on a buzzer-beating putback from underneath to redeem himself from the missed drive that led to the Beermen’s 88-89 loss in the best-of-seven series opener last Sunday.
That shot completed SMB’s rise from 19 points down and preserved the sterling games of Terrence Romeo, who scored 24 of his game-high 26 points in the second half, and Fajardo, who finished with 22 points and 10 boards.
All because of Lassiter being at the right place at the right time.
“The first option namin is for June Mar, next is Terrence. June Mar was able to get the ball and it’s a good play for him but he missed that shot,” related SMB coach Leo Austraia of the play he drew off their final timeout in the last six seconds.
“But Marcio was still around,” added Austria. “Iyun ‘yung tinatawag na sense of urgency, because of his experience he knew that possession was very important and we’re very lucky he was able to convert at the right time.”
Romeo was simply glad they were able to pull through despite facing as much as a 61-80 deficit late in the third period.
“Iyun ang character ng team na ito kaya special ‘yung SMB dahil kahit anong sitwasyon namin di kami bumibitaw,” gushed Romeo. “Nag-uusap kami, stay together kahit ano’ng mangyari. Saka ‘yung mga veterans naming… sila talaga nagdadala ng team kahit medyo nagkakagulo-gulo na.
“Basta hindi kami sumuko the whole game.”
The Beermen looked all set to steal the game outright when charities by Lassiter and Chris Ross gave them a 96-93 lead, only 10.6 ticks to go.
But that was razed just four seconds later when Troy Rosario boomed in a triple that knotted the count at 96-all.
“Hindi ko matatawaran puso ng mga players,” said Austria. “We were down 20, but they kept on fighting. To tell you honestly, pure heart ito.”
Alex Cabagnot added 14 points and Arwind Santos 11 and Lassiter seven for SMB, which also limited itself to just 13 turnovers, 10 less than in the opener, and even lessened TNT’s second chance points to just 12.
Still, the Beermen seemed headed to falling into a 0-2 hole in the series when they couldn’t get much going in the early stages of the game with their troubles compounded by the Tropang Giga’s torrid shooting that led to the latter’s 82-67 spread at the end of the third period.
Then things started turning sour for TNT at about the same time no defense could stymie Romeo.
After scoring nine points in the third, the flashy guard really heated up in the payoff period with 15, the last off an elbow jumper that made just a 92-93 count, still 1:22 left.
