SAN Miguel may have fallen from its throne, but it did gain the full respect of the same opponent responsible for it.
Bay Area Dragons saluted the Beermen for a hard-fought best-of-five semifinals that ended in four games following the guest team's gut-wrenching 94-92 win on Wednesday night.
Import Andrew Nicholson and coach Brian Goorjian were one in saying how good a team San Miguel is, from its players to the entire coaching staff.
"Nothing but respect for ownership, coaching staff, players for the adjustments coach made during that series on Andrew, on the posts up, the double team, switching on the on-balls. That's what finals basketball is about, and he (Leo Austria) was a hell of a pro," said Goorjian.
Nicholson, the 6-foot-10 NBA veteran, was again the big difference for the guest team from Hong Kong as he finished with 42 big points, and had 21 rebounds, while firing 6-of-10 from beyond the arc.
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But even he was hats off for the dethroned champion.
"San Miguel is a good team. They're really a good team, and we have to come with our A-game (to win)," said Nicholson.
Except for Game 2 which Bay Area won handily, 114-95, the three other games were decided by an average margin of 2.5 points.
That's how close the series was fought, something which hadn't escape the prying eyes of Goorjian.
"Three games by two points, I don't think I've ever been in a series, and I have been in the game for a long time that was like that," said the veteran mentor, who is also coach of the Australian national team.
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"I mean three of the four games are last second. Incredible."
Incidentally, the two team could face each other again should both reach the semifinals of the East Asia Super League (EASL) Champions Week on March next year in Japan. (RG)
