IT’S getting to be a habit. Doing it as ordinary, effortlessly, as combing one’s hair.
I refer to San Miguel Beer’s (SMB) affinity to snatching wins from the so-called jaws of defeat.
They are it again.
Three times in the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup, the Beermen were uncanny escape artists—a role the guys had essayed so beautifully time and time again.
It began on July 25, when Arwind Santos—yes, the many-time closer of improbable SMB victories done stunningly, consistently, from afar—fired the winning shot in SMB’s 88-86 win over NorthPort at Ynares Center, Pasig City.
Three days later, Alex Cabagnot would suffer a torn meniscus on his left knee, getting himself sidelined for seven games.
But even without a single practice game with the Beermen, Cabagnot would play hero only last weekend.
Cabagnot, amazingly burying baskets like he was his usual old self, capped a game-high 20-point output by sinking the game winner with a tick and a half left.
His fall away jumper at the left elbow over the outstretched arms of towering Sidney Onwubere gave SMB an 88-87 squeaker over Northport—again.
That gave the Beermen a 1-0 lead over the Batang Pier in their best-of-three quarterfinals.
If the July 27 defeat had scarred the heart, the September 26 debacle had a massively devastating effect on Northport, which, before Cabagnot’s killer shot, grabbed an 87-86 lead on Robert Bolick’s improbable triple fired near the centerline logo of the DHVSU Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Before humiliating Northport, SMB also nipped Alaska on a buzzer-beating triple yet from deep left by Marcio Lassiter—from a well-timed assist by CJ Perez.
Ah, Alaska.
Did it not blow a mammoth three-game lead, allowing SMB to steal a 4-3 victory in the 2016 All-Filipino championship that rewrote history?
Before that feat, no team has ever rallied from 0-3 to win a best-of-seven series 4-3—not even in America’s National Basketball Association.
Beermen coach Leo Austria, street-smart that he is as he is not really that bookish, has indeed made life hellish for his peers all these years. For, while luck happens basically on its own, not to Austria. He has mastered luck—seemingly.
THAT’S IT Yuka Saso, the Fil-Japanese US Open champ in June, placed tied for fourth on Sunday at the Walmart Open golf in Arkansas, USA. She drained two eagles in a stunning final round windup, going 12-under in her last 36 holes, to pocket the peso equivalent of roughly P5 million in the 54-hole tournament. Her compatriots Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina weren’t as lucky and finished way off the pace. They play again at the $1.75-million ShopRite Open on October 1 to 3 in Atlantic City, New York.