TOUGH CALL
Lucky to escape victorious Tuesday night, the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers vow to put together a better performance Thursday while expecting an even tougher challenge from the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in Game 2 of the PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-five finale.
The Mixers must really be on their toes as the Elasto Painters have no plans on easing the pressure, promising to be relentless in a bid to get even in the game set at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The crucial match will be ushered in by a brief awards ceremony where league commissioner Chito Salud and Board chairman Mon Segismundo will hand out plaques to the Best Player of the Conference and the Best Import.
June Mar Fajardo and Ranidel de Ocampo are the top choices for the BPC award while AZ Reid is the chief bet for the Best Import trophy.
Game Two of the San Mig Coffee-Rain or Shine battle is a tough call especially the way they slugged it out in the series opener.
The Elasto Painters dominated three-fourths of the way, but the Mixers stayed around and came through with the bigger plays in the clutch to pull out a thrilling 104-101 win.
The game became a bit controversial with the refs letting go a contact between Paul Lee and Marc Pingris in the dying seconds.
Lee was then going for a possible game-tying three-pointer.
“In many ways we were lucky to escape with Game One. We were outplayed and outhustled for most of the game and were fortunate to hit a couple of tough shots at the end to pull it out,” said San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone.
“We’ve got to put together a much better performance if we’re going to get Game Two. Our first group is going to have come out and really set the tone for us,” Cone also said.
Curiously, it’s San Mig’s second group that kept the team in the battle for most part before James Yap and Marqus Blakely came through in the homestretch.
Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao was convinced they were denied of a chance to send the game into overtime on the non-call in the last sequence in Game One.
But Guiao said they’re ready to move on and try to stop the grand slam-chasing San Mig Coffee team in Game Two. (SB)
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