San Mig escapes gritty Meralco to advance to 38th PBA Governors’ Cup title round

The San Mig Coffee Mixers survived a fiery run by the Meralco Bolts to chalk up a tough 79-73 win and barged into the finals of the 38th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum, last night.

Though Mario West played with an injured shoulder, the Bolts still gave the Coffee Mixers a huge scare when they nearly wiped out a 10-point deficit inside the final three minutes of the contest.

San Mig, however, did just enough to hold off the rallying Meralco and went on to secure its third championship berth with Tim Cone as head coach.

Cone, who won 13 crowns with Alaska and one with San Mig, could tie Baby Dalupan’s league record of 15 titles should San Mig manage to hurdle this one.

San Mig led throughout the contest and had a 74-64 lead with 2:44 left when the Bolts staged an 8-0 blast to come within 71-74 with 1:04 to go.

Meralco made it a two-point contest, 73-75, on a back-to-the-basket follow-up shot by Reynel Hugnatan in the final 41.2 seconds left.

The Mixers finally silenced the Bolts when Marqus Blakely dished off a brilliant pass to Mark Barroca, whose reversed lay-up gave San Mig a five-point cushion in the final 23.2 seconds.

Blakely finished with 23 points, James Yap tallied 19, while Pingris added 16 for the Mixers, who will next play the winner in the other semifinal duel between the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the Petron Blaze Boosters.

Petron leads the series, 2-1, and could grab the other finals ticket with another win today.

West, who had to leave early in their 84-97 Game 3 loss after dislocating his shoulder in the third period, paced the Bolts with 22 markers.