Beer over gin: SMB halts Ginebra’s PBA streak

San Miguel put a halt to Barangay Ginebra’s winning run in the PBA Philippine Cup, edging out the erstwhile hottest team in the tournament, 79-78, in a thrilling Sunday game at the Araneta Coliseum. Jay Washington scored the game-winning basket with a put-back of his own miss, while Arwind Santos pulled off a huge stop in the waning seconds that preserved the win for the Beermen. Winner of seven of their last eight outings, the Beermen raised their record to 9-2 overall and moved closer to clinching an outright semifinals berth in the All-Filipino tournament. But they had to do it against a hard-fighting Ginebra quintet, which rallied back from as much as a 14-point deficit and even grabbed the lead at 78-77 with less than a minute to go. “We almost lost it. But we were able to re-focus and keep our composure," said Washington, who finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, all of which were made against Ginebra guard Mark Caguioa. Dondon Hontiveros topscored for San Miguel with 20 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the three-point area. His last triple broke the game’s final deadlock and gave the Beermen a 71-68 lead. But the Kings, who were on a six-game winning run, battled their way back to take a 78-77 lead on Rudy Hatfield's basket underneath off a perfect pass by Ronald Tubid, with 36 seconds left. Washington answered on the other end by quickly tipping in his own miss to give San Miguel a one-point cushion. Still, the door was left wide open for Ginebra, which still had 13.4 seconds to map out a final play. The Kings went to Willie Miller, the two-time league MVP, who dribbled down the baseline past Santos and drove hard to the basket. But Santos regained his footing and came up from behind to block Miller’s attempt,with the ball rolling over to Alex Cabagnot, who wisely tapped it downcourt to a streaking Hontiveros, who in turn scooted to avoid a foul while wasting the time away. Santos finished with 15 points for the Beermen. “It’s always a tough game when we play Ginebra," said Washington, pointing out the similar one-point victory (69-68) San Miguel pulled off against the same team in their first meeting this conference. Caguioa showed the way with 16 points for the Kings, who also got 15 from Tubid and 11 from Miller. Their winning streak broken, the Kings are now at 7-3, sill good enough to remain in solo second. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV