By Kevin Patrick V. Mariano
MANILA, (PNA) — The San Mig Coffee Mixers relied on their huge third quarter rally to wallop the the Petron Blaze Boosters,100-93 in their Game Two Finals encounter to tie their series match-up in front of a mammoth crowd on Sunday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
James Yap was chosen as the Best Player of the Game after spearheading the Mixers with 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
Leading by four early in the third canto, San Mig Coffee launched a thunderous 11-3 outburst that increased their lead to a dozen,68-56.
Petron’s Ronald Tubid ended their drought after scoring inside to trim San Mig Coffee’s lead to ten, 68-58 but Alex Mallari brought back their lead to twelve,70-58.
Elijah Millsap fired a cold bloodied jumper but it was answered by a Peter June Simon corner trey that gave the Mixers a fourteen point cushion,74-60. Petron managed to convert with a two pointer to finish the 3rd quarter trailing by twelve, 74-62.
The Boosters tried to make a run in the start of the fourth period, as they launch a 6-1 rally to rim the Mixers’ lead to seven,75-68, but the Mixers responded with five unanswered points that brought back their lead to twelve, 80-68.
Petron suffered a big blow after losing Elijah Millsap who commited his sixth and final foul with 3;29 minutes remaining in the final period.
Instead of giving up, the Booster rallied fiercely by trimming the Mixers lead to seven, 89-82 with more than two minutes left in the game.
The Boosters suffered another huge blow after losing June Mar Fajardo and Arwin Santos, they managed to put on a scare by trimming San Mig’s lead to three, 96-93 with nine seconds left.
Petron intetnionally fouled PJ Simon who calmly sank his two freethrows to seal the victory for the Mixers.