HOW fast roles reverse in the PBA.
Less than 48 hours removed from their "humiliating" 28-point loss in Game 1 of the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner's Cup Finals, San Miguel Beer flipped the script on Ginebra and delivered a 134-109 hammering to even their Finals series Sunday night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Beermen made it clear as early as the end of the second quarter as they scored 75 points heading into halftime. The series is now a virtual Best-of-Five when action resumes on Wednesday at the same venue.
Alex Cabagnot led all scorers in Game 2 with a rousing near double-double performance of career-high 33 points and 9 assists to go with 4 steals to lead four other SMB players with 20 points or more.
"The factor here is Alex Cabagnot, he was really obsessed, he really wanted to win," said Beermen coach Leo Austria. "But everybody stepped up and they are well motivated."
"Now we have a series. I'm so thankful for the players because they realized the importance of this game. They came out really furious from start to finish. To the point na may nate-
Even with twin ejections only seconds apart in the final quarter, the Beermen shrugged off the loss of Chris Ross and Arwind Santos five minutes left in the match to quash any chance of a comeback from BGSM.
"Because of their intensity, it happens," said Austria.
With the exception of Ross, who went scoreless and got ejected on his second technical foul five minutes to play, the Beermen's starting five all scored 20 points or more.
Arwind Santos, ejected for a flagrant foul two, 15 seconds earlier than Ross, chipped in 14, while 2018 top draft pick Christian Standhardinger added 20.
Meanwhile, Justin Brownlee provided some spark for Ginebra which trailed as high as 31, 77-46 in the third, finishing the game with 29 points and 3:56 to play after garnering his sixth foul. Joe Devance contributed 16, while Greg Slaughter pitched in 15 off the bench.
"Obviously, we did a good job today, but it's just 1-1," said Cabagnot.