Beermen stay alive vs Dragons in PBA semis

MANILA, Philippines — The San Miguel Beermen came up with big defensive stops in the endgame to survive the Bay Area Dragons, 98-96, in their best-of-five semifinals series of the PBA Commissioner's Cup at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City on Sunday.

With their backs against the wall, the Beermen erased an early 14-point deficit against the Dragons to put themselves on the board in the series. The Dragons remain in the lead, 2-1.

Late heroics by Devon Scott and Simon Enciso erased a Kobey Lam triple that broke a 93-all deadlock with 52 ticks left in the ball game.

Scott drew a foul and made both his freebies with 41 seconds remaining to set up a clutch triple for Enciso to give the Beermen the lead, 98-96, with 12 seconds left.

The Beermen's reinforcement also came up with the block on Lam on their first attempt in the next possession. While the Dragons had one more try off of an inbound pass with two seconds remaining, Hayden Blankley missed on the potential game-tying basket.

Scott finished with a double-double of 25 points and 14 boards to go along with two assists, one steal and two blocks for the Beermen.

June Mar Fajardo added a double-double of his own with 21 markers and 16 boards.

CJ Perez and Enciso added 17 and 16 markers, respectively.

Andrew Nicholson paced Bay Area in the losing effort with 34 points and 14 rebounds.

The Dragons will try to eliminate the Beermen anew on Wednesday, December 21, at the Mall of Asia Arena.