San Miguel and Meralco face off one last time as they dispute the last Finals spot Wednesday in the Game 7 of their best-of-seven semifinals series in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
A highly-emotional and physical game is expected between the two proud squads as their hardly-fought duel reaches its pinnacle at 6 p.m. with the winner getting the right to challenge the current all-Filipino Cup kings TNT in another race-to-four affair in the Finals.
Momentum, however, points towards the Bolts after coming alive from the dead in Game 6 where they unleashed a searing 16-2 rally to recover from a 10-point hole in the last four minutes and force the winner-take-all.
Aaron Black was at the forefront of that attack scoring the last 11 points of Meralco to pull off an dramatic, 96-92 come-from-behind win. Black’s heroics also put Meralco in a position to make history and book its first trip to the Philippine Cup finals in its franchise history.
Meralco head coach Norman Black however refused to get too carried away as the job is definitely not yet done for the Bolts especially that throughout the series, the losing team has been able to bounce back so far – a trend that actually favors San Miguel.
“It’s hard to keep them down, they are a very good team, I know they’re gonna make adjustments going into the next game. We also have to make some adjustments and not really react to them anymore because it is the last game,” said Black.
“Coach Leo (Austria) has been doing a good job making adjustments everytime they lose and try to anticipate what they will be going to at the same time, have a few adjustments of our own to stay ahead and hopefully get a victory,” he added.
The Beermen for their part, admittedly didn’t know what hit them in the waning minutes of Game 6 but showed solid resolve to bounce back from the embarrassing defeat. The usually approachable Austria even begged off from doing his post-game interviews, perhaps, already shifting his focus to the do-or-die match.
SMB veteran Chris Ross, however, made sure that the team will quickly move on from the tough loss and that they will come together heading into the Game 7.
“It’s a team game. We know one person doesn’t lose a game, one person doesn’t win a game. We’re all in this together. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. That’s the message I said to the guys.”
