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Source: The Philippine Star

-- B-Meg wore down Barangay Ginebra in a gut-wrenching battle, and PJ Simon delivered all the firepower the Llamados needed at the finish to pull off a difficult 83-77 win to move in the threshold of a first PBA finals in three years at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

Simon poured eight of his 15 points in the last two minutes and the Llamados squeezed through from the tight duel, gaining a commanding 2-0 lead in their Commissioner’s Cup best-of-five semifinal showdown.

B-Meg now has three shots at nailing down a ninth final in import-laden tourneys and 22nd in all in franchise history.

“It takes a special effort to go 2-0 against a team like Ginebra. You need calmness, living through mistakes, living through bad calls and moving forward. We’re able to do that,” said multi-titled coach Tim Cone, now on the verge of a first final outside of Alaska Milk.

“Do I think it’s over? You know better,” Cone added. “We put out a special effort tonight. We need special effort times two to make it 3-0.”

True enough, the Llamados dished out a huge job to survive a whale of a fight put up by the beleaguered Ginebra team.

Denzel Bowles came through with game highs of 21 points and 15 rebounds and drew all the help he needed from his local teammates as B-Meg repeated its 82-67 win in Game One.

The count was tied at 75-all before the Llamados cashed in on crucial errors by a Ginebra team obviously reeling from fatigue.

There was Jackson Vroman who had to fight off cramps.

Niño Canaleta was bigger than life coming off the bench but he himself lost steam at endgame.

The Kings scored only two points in the last three minutes, running into a maze of errors and missed shots.

Simon parlayed into a breakaway layup a turnover by Mike Cortez to break the 75-all deadlock. Then after Canaleta misfired a three-pointer, Simon canned two charities as the Llamados put more pressure on the Kings.

Vroman and his teammates failed to recover, thus, moving on the brink of elimination.

Jayjay Helterbrand got away with a reversed four-point play in the last four seconds as Ginebra took the half at 41-37.

The two teams engaged in a defensive battle in the first half, limiting one another to 27 points each through the first 17 minutes.

The Kings picked up their offense towards the end of the first half through second-string forwards Canaleta and Rudy Hatfield.

Bowles, meanwhile, carried the cudgels for the Llamados piling up 12 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks in the first two quarters as against Vroman’s six markers and six boards.

Canaleta came off the bench with his guns ablaze, firing away three treys and a total of 11 points in the second period.