A Valentine’s to remember for the San Miguel Beermen as they lift their 29th title of their franchise after clinching the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Champion in Game 6.

Trailing by a double-digit deficit in the last quarter of the game, SMB stunned the Magnolia Hotshots after pulling a come-from-behind 106-104 win to seal the gold medal in the nail biting match last Wednesday, February 14, held at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

After scoring only 4 points in the first half, Cj Perez took over in the fourth quarter finishing with a playoff career-high of 28 points to manage the Hotshots and claiming his second championship of his career.

In the start of the game, Magnolia started their quarter strong courtesy of Jio Jalalon’s shooting to secure the lead in the first quarter, 26-22.

Going to the second quarter, San Miguel started a mini run to take the lead after June Mar Fajardo’s scoring, however Paul Lee answered with his 7 straight points ending the first half, 51-46, Hotshots leading by five.

In the second half, both teams kept exchanging triples and runs but Magnolia came on top after a magnificent offense from Lee and Bey to end the third quarter with a 9-point lead, 92-83. 

Entering the final minutes of the game, a 17-4 run courtesy of PBA’s Best Player of the Conference, Perez, alongside Jericho Cruz and Chris Ross lead the Beermen in with their hot shooting to help them come alive in the last quarter after being down by 11 points early in the fourth.

Nailing a huge triple coming from Cruz brought the SMB within 1-point game, 98-97, with 1:43 left on the clock.

Meanwhile seizing the opportunity, Ross drained the wide open three pointer to help the Beermen reclaimed the lead, 100-99, and with under a minute left, Perez hit the SMB’s 16th triple to put them up by four.

Hotshots’ Aris Dionisio made a one last push with own triple cutting the lead to one, 103-102, but  with seconds left to play, Cruz daggered two free throws to finish off the Magnolia in six games, 4-2, with earlier victories at game 1 (103-95), game 2 (109-85), and game 5 (108-98).

Perez was named the PBA Finals Most Valuable Player after averaging in the seven-game series of 18 points per game, 3.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 3.2 steals, securing the first finals MVP of his career.

When asked by the Inquirer in an interview about his exchange with the head coach, Perez admitted that Jorge Gallent helped him to get hot in the second half, “It’s like a father-and-son argument… But when coach Jorge does that to me, I get fired up.”

On the other hand, Fajardo ended his game with 19 points and 12 rebounds and now claimed his 10th championship of his career. 

“Special to kasi nga bihira lang kami nagchachampion sa conference na ‘to. Naghahabol kami buong game.” said by Fajardo. “Pinakita talaga namin ang composure sa end game.” he added.

On the other hand, SMB’s import, Bennie Boatwright, contributed with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists to help their team succeed in their title run.

“It feels great. Everybody worked hard for this championship, especially in this game. They didn’t give up and they wanted to win it now. They showed how composed they are, even if they’re down big.” Gallant said after finally winning his first championship with the team in his second year.

Collapsing in the last minutes, the 25-point game of Paul came to waste after Hotshots suffered another heartbreaking loss in the finals and are now in a drought for the past six years of a championship.