Mar Fajardo

The San Miguel Beermen gave it all they could on the floor in Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against TNT.

And while team officials were fuming at the end of that last Sunday night after the Beermen absorbed a 99-96 defeat, coach Leo Austria was anything but irate.

The veteran tactician was almost calm, cool and collected despite the bedlam that occurred at Araneta Coliseum.

For Austria, lingering on the offensive basket interference that ultimately led to the loss was useless. He’d much rather tip his hat to the Beermen, who almost clawed their way up from what looked like an insurmountable deficit.

He however, feels that one incident threw away all of his team’s hard work.

“We had a bad start, we were able to get a run and take the lead but all of a sudden, this incident happened,” a disappointed Austria told the Inquirer. “This is beyond our control. The players’ efforts were wasted.”

San Miguel was down by as many as 24 points in the series-opener before going on a fourth quarter run that had the Beermen on the verge of stealing Game 1.

San Miguel held a 98-97 lead going into the final 6.2 seconds only for that controversial Mo Tautuaa dunk with 56 seconds left to be overturned after being deemed as an offensive basket interference.

And with that, Game 2 will be played on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum, with the Beermen looking to avoid being buried in a 0-2 hole against a team as talented as the Tropang 5G.

San Miguel doesn’t actually need to look far to see where everything went wrong.

Pogoy return

TNT’s furious—or San Miguel’s anemic—effort in the early parts of the game that had the Tropang 5G taking that 24-point spread was obviously one of the keys to the Game 1 result.

There’s also the great return to action of RR Pogoy, who scored 23 points that included some crucial baskets, for TNT.

And Austria feels that he can point a finger as to why.

“We realized that, maybe, after our (semifinals) series with (Barangay) Ginebra (that went seven games), a lot of our players were tired and relaxed because of that win,” he said. “But we know that in order for us to compete with TNT, we have to give our A Game.”

That A-Game came only in the fourth, when the San Miguel defense held TNT to just 14 points.

This series carries a lot of weight for both franchises, with the Tropang 5G shooting to complete only the sixth Grand Slam in league history and San Miguel looking to reclaim an old throne it had occupied with impunity for more of the last decade.

TNT can only hope to come up with the same gritty stand as it did a few nights back, while Austria hopes his crew gets going right from the get-go to avoid being down big again. INQ