The San Miguel Beermen may have beaten the Terrafirma Dyip, 109-104, on Saturday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo. But, after the game, it was clear acting head coach Peter Martin and import George King were far from satisfied even as the team went up 2-0 to start their PBA Governors’ Cup campaign.
“We were fortunate there. It could’ve easily been Terrafirma before you guys today,” King said in the postgame presser. “Luckily our defense at that moment turned up.”
King is spot-on. Terrafirma had wiped out every bit of the Beermen’s 22-point lead earlier in the game, taking a 104-101 lead on a Juami Tiongson triple at the 1:21 mark of the fourth. But King hit two free throws, then scored on a lay-in off a crucial steal on Tiongson with under a minute left to give San Miguel back the lead.
In all, San Miguel forced three turnovers—King himself was directly responsible for two of those—and two missed triples after Terrafirma took that three-point lead in the game’s final two minutes.
Peter Martin Gets Honest About the Win
Peter Martin, who was filling in again for Leo Austria, was more pointed in his assessment: Terrafirma did everything right but win.
“We can say a win is a win. I think they outhustled us, they outplayed us, they outcoached us,” Martin acknowledged in the same presser. “The coaching staff of the other side was better than me today.”
The stats seem to bear that out. Terrafirma shot better, nearly had the same rebounds as San Miguel, and also had more assists. The Dyip even had more points both from the perimeter and inside the paint. The Beermen’s only distinct advantage, in fact, was in free throws, where they went 32-for-40 as opposed to Terrafirma’s 7-for-11.
But it wasn’t for the lack of reminders, though.
“Hindi kami nagkulang sa paalala… We reminded them that Terrafirma came back from 20 points down in the fourth quarter against two teams, NLEX and Converge,” Martin pointed out.
Reminders and all, the Beermen still nearly let the game slip away.
