MANILA – San Miguel Beermen and Magnolia Hotshots will break the deadlock in Game 3 of the 2019 Honda PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven finals tonight at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Both teams are knotted a 1-1 heading into the match slated at 6:30 tonight with the Hotshots taking Game 1 last Wednesday, 99-94, before the Beermen answered with a 108-101 win in Game 2 last Friday.
Beermen head coach Leo Austria said that he hopes that his players will bring the same intensity and determination tonight as the defending champions hopes to snatch the series edge.
“We’re so glad that we’re able to tie the series because this is what we’re trying to avoid – to fall into zero-two,” said Austria. “It’s going to be exciting now because the series boils down to best-of-five.”
“What happened (in Game 2) is we’re able to set up plays and we’re able to not concentrate solely on June Mar (Fajardo). And the scoring was divided among players – seven players got into double figures eh,” he added.
Among those who share the scoring load with Fajardo the other night were Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos, Chris Ross, Christian Standhardinger, Marcio Lassiter, and Terrence Romeo.
Hotshots head coach Chito Victolero, however, is hopeful that they will not suffer the same fate as last year’s All-Filipino conference finale, where Magnolia took Game 1 before surrendering the next four to SMB.
“It’s a learning experience for us. Like I’ve been saying, the series doesn’t end with our Game 1 win. We know San Miguel will bounce back strong and that’s what happened in Game 2,” Victolero said.
“But we’re wiser and more experienced in pressure situations now, and we just need to settle down and prepare for Game 3,” he added. “In Game 1, we played to our strength, which is our defense and chemistry. We’ll try to do that again in Game 3.”/PN
