PBA: NorthPort survives San Miguel in nail-biter, completes its first-ever sweep of SMC teams

NorthPort made a great escape even after a double-digit meltdown, gutting out a 105-104 victory against San Miguel in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner's Cup on Tuesday at the Ynares Center Antipolo.

With the hard-fought victory, the Batang Pier achieved the franchise's first-ever sweep of the three San Miguel Corporation teams — San Miguel, Barangay Ginebra, and Magnolia. More importantly, they also ended a two-game skid to improve to 8-3 and inched closer to a twice-to-beat playoff incentive.

"It's a great feeling always every time you achieve something like what we did today. It's a great feeling for us, for the team and for the franchise and also, I guess everyone just naniniwala lang sa isa't-isa since the start of the conference," Arvin Tolentino said.

"'Yun na 'yung naging puhunan namin, 'yung belief na we can do it if we stick together."

But it didn't come easy for NorthPort, which wasted a 24-point lead after allowing the Beermen to turn things around late in the third quarter thanks to a gutsy bench effort.

It looked like the win was already for the taking for NorthPort after building an 83-59 cushion midway through the third period on a basket by Will Navarro, who was perfect 7-of-7 from the field at the time.

But the Beermen dug deep into their bench with the likes of Mo Tautuaa and Don Trollano fueling a 15-7 run to close the frame to cut the deficit to 16, 90-74. Andreas Cahilig and Juami Tiongson also joined in on the bench barrage, hitting back-to-back triples before the latter buried a four-point shot that made it just a 99-89 deficit.

Trollano then completed a three-point play opportunity before CJ Perez hit two consecutive layups that allowed them to trim the gap to a solitary point, 99-98, with still 3:06 in the clock.

Tolentino sank a pair of free throws for NorthPort but another SMB three-point play, this time from June Mar Fajardo, saw the defending champions tying things up at 101-all.

Kadeem Jack, who had a 27-point outburst in the first half but was limited in the second half, came alive and knocked down a tough jumper before three straight freebies allowed San Miguel to take a 104-103 lead with 26.5 ticks to go.

Jack, though, saved the day for NorthPort, completing another jumper over Tautuaa as San Miguel couldn't come up with the game-winner on the last possession.

Jack top-scored with 38 points, seven rebounds, and two assists while Tolentino churned out 22 markers, eight boards, four dimes, two steals, and one block as they sent San Miguel on the brink of elimination with a 4-6 card.

Fajardo paced San Miguel with 24 points as Perez and Trollano had 21 and 16 markers. Tautuaa scored 14 points, all of which came in the second half.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News