"It was a great escape. We fell behind by 20 points and trailed by 17 at the half. Credit goes to the players dahil hindi sila nawalan ng pagasa. They played with a lot of heart and with a lot of pride," said San Miguel coach Jong Uichico.
The Phone Pals actually had a chance to force overtime but Vic Pablo muffed two free throws with 1.9 seconds to go and Taulava failed to convert on a followup on Pablo’s intentional miss on his second charity.
The San Miguel bench and the team’s throngs in the gallery erupted in a frenzied celebration as Taulava’s follow-up went awry, enabling the Beermen to complete the stirring victory.
In Game Three on Wednesday in the same venue, San Miguel has a chance to put Talk n Text on a hole no team has able to come out in PBA best-of-seven finals.
But Uichico said a 2-0 lead is anything but safe against Talk n Text.
"They have too many weapons we have to contend with," said Uichico, pointing out to Taulava slowly getting into the groove.
But not a few observed rushing the return of Taulava to Talk n Text’s main rotation is proving to be a bane for the team.
They pointed to Taulava being too slow in reacting to Ildefonso’s baseline drive that broke a 79-all deadlock with time down to six seconds.
The Phone Pals enjoyed a 20-point lead at 50-30 and were still in the lead at 79-73 before suffering a total offensive breakdown. They went scoreless in the last 3:40 of play.
The Beermen finally pulled even at 79-all on a booming triple by Olsen Racela from left quartercourt with 1:29 left in the clock.
And after Jerald Honeycutt missed a short jumper in the ensuing play, the Beermen, through hustle, kept possession of the ball until Ildefonso made the winning basket.
There was Dorian Peña tapping the loose ball to Ace Custis after Custis himself missed a three-point attempt. There’s also Ildefonso stealing off Willie Miller after a miss by Racela.
Talk n Text overwhelmed San Miguel in the second quarter with a torrid attack that gave the Phone Pals a 47-30 bulge at halftime.
Enjoying only a 19-15 lead after the first quarter, the Phone Pals shifted their game into higher gear in the second period, converting 64.7 percent of their field goal shots as against the Beermen’s measly 33-percent shooting.
The Phone Pals were awesome even from beyond the arc, firing five treys in the second quarter with two coming from Vic Pablo on perfect 2-of-2 clip.