San Miguel Beermen

San Miguel Beer is now within arm's reach of returning back to the PBA Fiesta Cup Finals.

Dondon Hontiveros fired three three-pointers in the second half, the last of which put the fight out of Derby Ace as the Beermen claimed Game 4 Wednesday night, 83-75, to take a commanding lead in their best-of-seven semifinals series at the Astrodome.

Gabe Freeman bucked another foul trouble stint by coming through with a monster double-double of 22 points and a conference-high 24 rebounds, Hontiveros added 12 and Arwind Santos also came through with the same scoring output, while putting the clamps anew on Derby Ace import Tony Washam in the win that gave the defending champions a 3-1 lead in the series.

The Beermen could clinch the first Finals seat and a second straight Fiesta Cup championship appearance with another victory in Game 4 set this Friday at the Araneta Coliseum.

"We want to finish it off on Friday," stressed Santos, who also had five rebounds and two assists in between holding Washam to only 12 markers - 14 short of his 26-point per game average.

Hontiveros' outside sniping in the second half allowed the Beermen to break free from a tight ballgame. His six-point cluster on two three-pointers gave the defending champions their first double digit spread at 58-48 late in the third period.

The Llamados managed to come within 58-54 at the end of the quarter, but the Beermen opened up the pivotal fourth with a 10-2 run for 68-56 lead on a strong drive to the basket by Joseph Yeo.

A putback by Santos off a Yeo missed gave San Miguel its biggest lead of the game, 75-61.

But the Llamados weren't finished yet.

Roger Yap capped a 10-0 blast by connecting on his final trey for the game as Derby Ace chopped the deficit to 75-71 with 2:39 to go.

The run proved to be the final stand of the Llamados though, as Hontiveros buried the killer three-pointer a minute later, dashing any hopes of a dramatic, last-minute comeback by Derby Ace.

The Yap boys - James and Roger - topscored with 18 and 15 points, respectively, in a losing cause for the Llamados.

Washam, who just two weeks ago fired a conference-high 49 points in the deciding game of the Llamados' quarterfinals series with Rain or Shine, failed to get on track this time, going just 2-of-19 from the floor, including a 1-of-16 stint from the two-point zone.

Halftime ended at 36-34 after Jay Washington scored underneath to break the deadlock with eight-tenths of a second left in the second period.

James Yap earlier connected on a long jumper to tie the game at 34, finishing the first half already with 11 points to lead the Llamados. - RCJ, GMANews.TV

Scores:

San Miguel 83– Freeman 22, Santos 12, Hontiveros 12, Washington 11, Yeo 7, Cabagnot 7, Ildefonso 7, Racela 3, Villanueva 2, Pena 0.

Derby Ace 75 – Yap J. 18, Yap R. 15, Washam 12, Pingris 8, Maierhofer 6, Simon 6, Reavis 4, Canaleta 3, Artadi 2, Allado 1.

Quarter scores:18-17, 36-34, 58-54, 83-75

Tit for tat.

This time, it was San Miguel's turn to rally back from a big first half deficit, capping the comeback with a cold-blooded Arwind Santos three-pointer to repulse Derby Ace, 74-70, for a 2-1 lead in their PBA Fiesta Cup semifinals series Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

Santos hit the pressure-packed shot in the final 65 seconds to push the Beermen on top for good, 73-70, before hanging tough in the end and bouncing back from a heartbreaking 95-94 loss in Game 2 that saw them lost grip of an 18-point lead.

The Beermen, who trailed by as many as 28-45, highlighted the Game 3 win by limiting the Llamados to only two points in the final 4:45 and shackling top scorer James Yap, who was held without a field goal in the last 14:05.

"Give credit to our defense," said San Miguel Beer coach Siot Tanquingcen. "Talent can go only so far. You have to be able to make stops and give yourself a chance (to win)."

The defending champions outscored the Llamados in a grind-it-out fourth quarter, 17-12, but Derby Ace's 4-of-20 shooting in the period proved to be the big difference.

"It was pride which kept us in the game," said Dondon Hontiveros, who topscored with 17 points, including a split from the foul line with 21.7 seconds that sealed the come-from-behind win.

"Gabe (Freeman) was mad at halftime. He was yelling inside the dugout, `show some heart'. And that's what we did in the second half."

Santos best typified it, knocking down the go-ahead trey as Freeman, who again was in foul trouble for the second straight game, played decoy and drew the defense on him before finding his wide-open teammate at the right quarter court.

Before hitting that huge three-pointer, Santos was 0-for-5 from the same spot.

"That's Arwind for you. He may miss a lot of shots, but remains confident in himself," said Hontiveros of his lanky, power-forward teammate.

Tony Washam converted on a step-back jumper at the 1:23 mark to tie the game for the last time at 70.

But that proved to be the final stand of Derby Ace.

Shortly after Santos' conversion, the Llamados had several chances to make stride, but Washam bungled a left-handed drive, Roger Yap had a turnover off an inbound play, Chris Timberlake threw a wild shot on a drive and Washam hurled an ill-advised three-point shot that didn't even hit the rim.

Freeman played for only 29 minutes after incurring his fifth foul with 7:34 left to play, but still went away with 14 points and 20 rebounds for the reigning, defending champions, who also got 12 points and eight rebounds from Jay Washington.

Washam led Derby Ace with 22 points, but missed missed 19 of his 29 attempts.

Worst was James Yap, who finished with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting. His last field goal came at the 2:05 mark of the third quarter. - RCJ, GMANews.TV

Scores:

San Miguel Beer 74 – Hontiveros 17, Freeman 14, Washington 12, Santosd 8, Pena 6, Villanueva 5, Yeo 5, Cabagnot 5, Seigle 2, Racela 0, Ildefonso 0.

Derby Ace 70 – Washam 22, Yap, J. 17, Allado 10, Timberlake 5, Artadi 5, Pingris 4, Canaleta 3, Maierhofer 2, Salvador 0, Yap, R. 0.

Quarter scores:14-24; 33-45; 57-58; 74-70.

MAKING the game’s biggest offensive play wasn’t enough for Tony Washam. He preserved it by pulling off the game’s biggest stop, too.

Derby Ace’s prolific import completed a three-point play with 7.9 seconds remaining, and then added further luster to it with a steal in the subsequent possession, and the Llamados successfully fought back from an 18-point deficit in a gut-wrenching 95-94 victory over San Miguel Beer Friday night in the PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

The man who struggled in the series opener on 6-of-18 field-goal shooting scored 33 points, 10 coming in the final period punctuated by a strong move to the basket. He connected on a lay-up, drew the sixth and final foul from Gabe Freeman and sank the bonus shot as Derby Ace tied the series at one game apiece. But before the Llamados could celebrate, they still had to go through a tense moment in the Beermen’s final offensive play.

As it turned out, Washam was there again to save them. Washam stole the ball from the blind side when Danny Seigle attempted to make a pirouette move inside the paint, and then hurled the ball up onto their front court as he recovered the ball.

“It’s always nice to win against San Miguel Beer,” said Llamados coach Ryan Greogorio.

“We’re back from scratch and let’s just hope we can pull off an upset. But there are still a lot of things we have to improve on. The rewards are really tremendous if you win against a highly fancied team.”

Playing in his only fourth game in the league, Washam also pulled down seven rebounds and four steals, and James Yap added 18 points and nine rebounds for Derby Ace, which was nearly written off after getting buried by a 45-27 deficit in the second period. Don Allado contributed 15 points despite fouling out with 4:38 left to play for the Llamados, who conquered the Beermen despite being outrebounded 50-39 and shooting merely 37.8 percent from the field (31-of-82).

“The other thing we have to work on is how to figure out a way to score easy baskets,” said Gregorio.

“We’re practically bleeding. That’s goes to show how tough their defense is.”

No one, though, will question how determined these Llamados are. They didn’t give up when San Miguel threatened to rip the game wide open in the first half, never lost hope when, after coming to within 57-53, the Beermen stormed back to a double-digit lead at 70-57 late in the third period. And they never waived the white flag when Alex Cabagnot had a split from the line to push the Beermen to a 94-92 lead. With no more time-out left, Derby Ace ran its offensive play as if it was implanted on the players’ memory.

Washam took the ball at long court, before beating Arwind Santos with his first step and driving hard to the basket.

Santos had 19 points to lead the Beermen in scoring, while Freeman had another monster game that went to the trash bin with 18 points and 21 rebounds. - ww.pba.ph

Scores: B-Meg Derby Ace (95) - Washam 33, Yap J. 18, Allado 15, Yap R. 9, Pingris 6, Reavis 5, Timberlake 2, Salvador 2, Artadi 2, Simon 2, Maierhofer 1, Canaleta 0.

San Miguel Beer (94) - Santos 19, Freeman 18, Washington 13, Hontiveros 9, Ildefonso 9, Villanueva 8, Cabagnot 8, Yeo 7, Seigle 3, Pena 0.

Quarterscores: 18-30, 45-57, 74-79, 95-94