ABL: San Miguel Beermen escape with 66-65 victory over Indonesia Warriors

The San Miguel Beermen are a win away from being crowned as the new ABL champions.

Beermen import Brian Williams scored on an easy basket with five seconds left in the game, Sunday, at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig, to give San Miguel a 66-65 win over the Indonesia Warriors, and more importantly, a 2-0 advantage in the best of five ABL Finals series.

The defending champions Indonesia Warriors looked like they were on their way to stealing homecourt advantage late in the game. Stanley Pringle came up big late as he scored on a floater to put Indonesia up 65-64 with 22.7 seconds left in the game.

The Beermen struggled to set up their offense in the final play, which resulted into a difficult jumper from Leo Avenido. Luckily for the home team, the ball was last touched by the Warriors before it sailed out of bounds.

With six seconds left in the game, the Beermen had no choice but to roll the dice as they were already out of timeouts. However, Indonesia’s coach Todd Purves inexplicably called a timeout. The result was an opportunity for San Miguel head coach Leo Austria to design a play that ended with an easy Brian Williams go-ahead basket.

“Six seconds left and we didn’t have a timeout,” said Austria. “Fortunately for us, they gave us a timeout.”

Pringle ran down the court, but his floater rimmed out to give the Beermen a 66-65 win and a 2-0 series lead.

“That was their play actually,” Williams said after the game. “Coach Leo comes up with his own stuff but it looked like a play they were beating us [with] all season.”

Brian Williams scored the opening basket of the ball game with an undergoal stab. The American import added another basket off a Chris Banchero assist for a 4-0 San Miguel lead. The Indonesia Warriors finally got on the board with two Chris Daniels free throws at the 7:52 mark, followed by an 18-footer that knotted the game at 4-all.

Paolo Hubalde and Banchero then made it a 7-4 game, but Brian Williams was called for his second foul with still 4:51 left in the first quarter. That allowed Indonesia import Steve Thomas to make his presence felt, as he scored four points to trim the San Miguel lead down to a single point at 11-10.

A late basket by Justin Williams then gave the Beermen a 14-12 lead at the end of the first period.

Triples from Jeric Fortuna and Banchero helped engineer an 8-0 run for San Miguel to raise their lead to double-digits at 22-12. Mario Wusyang then went on a 5-0 run on his own for the Warriors to cut lead down to five points at 22-17.

With the Warriors threatening to comeback, ABL MVP Asi Taulava stepped back into the game and responded with a difficult turnaround fadeaway jumper for a seven-point lead.

Jerick Cañada trimmed the lead with a triple at the 3:15 mark for a 28-26 count but Leo Avenido replied with a one-hander from the baseline. Brian Williams however raised the San Miguel lead to six with a tip-in off a Taulava miss.

Following a Warriors basket, Banchero sank his second triple of the game, but Cañada took it back with his own three for a 35-31 count still in favor of the Beermen. Undaunted, Stanley Pringle sank another triple for the Warriors, for a 37-34 count for San Miguel heading into the half.

After scoring the last basket for the first half, Pringle also made the first basket of the second half. His floater trickled in to get the Warriors to within a point of the Beermen at 37-36. He added two free throws at the 8:36 mark to give Indonesia their first taste of the lead in the ball game.

A Brian Williams connection gave the Beermen back the lead at 39-38. He added a three-point play to stretch the San Miguel lead to four points. However, the Warriors went on a 7-2 run capped by a Daniels jumper for a 45-44 count in Indonesia’s favor.

Avenido made a baseline jumper at the 4:06 mark at the third to give the lead back to the Beermen. The Warriors then went to their guards Cañada and Pringle who gave them a three point lead but Fortuna replied with a triple to tie the ball game at 49-all.

Pringle scored on another lay-up off a hesitation drive to give Indonesia a 51-49 lead going into the final quarter.

The Fil-Am Pringle scored 10 points of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter. When the dust settled, Indonesia's imports both came up with double-doubles as Daniels had 15 points and 11 rebounds while Thomas had 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Val Acuña and Cañada exchanged triples early in the fourth quarter for a 56-52 lead for the Warriors. The former Adamson University Falcon then got a steal, but he injured his knee while running on the break.

Former ABL MVP Leo Avenido tied the game at 56-all with two free throws and a lay-up at the 6:13 mark of the fourth quarter.

With the game tied at 57-all, Brian Williams blocked a Pringle shot, ran down the court and followed up a Banchero miss to give the Beermen a 59-57 lead. However, the Warriors quickly tied the game up with two free throws.

Banchero and Taulava score on split free throws but Pringle scored on a basket to tie the ball game anew at 61-all.

With 2:22 left in the game, Banchero stepped up to the free throw line again, but this time he made both free throws for a 63-61 lead.

A free throw from Daniels and another from Pringle knotted the ball game at 63-all with 56 seconds left in the game.

The Beermen caught a lucky break as Taulava was fouled off a broken play. He only managed a split but it was enough to give San Miguel a 64-63 lead with only 34 seconds left in the game.  

Brian Williams was named as the Best Player of the Game as he scored 17 points, none bigger than his last two to win the game. He also grabbed 16 rebounds in the game.

Fil-Italian Banchero had a nice all-around game with 12 points, two rebounds, five assists, and two steals but he struggled from the field, making only three of his 13 attempts.

Game three of the series will be played in Indonesia on June 12. - AMD, GMA News


The scores:

San Miguel 66: Williams B. 17, Banchero 12, Avenido 8, Taulava 8, Acuna 7, Fortuna 6, Williams J. 6, Hubalde 2, Cawaling 0, Menk 0

Indonesia 65: Pringle 21, Daniels 15, Thomas 13, Canada 11,  Wusyang 5, Prihantono 0, Sitepu 0, Smith 0

Quarter scoring: 14-12, 37-34, 49-51, 66-65