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The 2015–16 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals was the best-of-7 championship series of the 2015–16 PBA Philippine Cup, and the conclusion of the conference's playoffs.[1] The Alaska Aces and the San Miguel Beermen competed for the 38th All-Filipino championship and the 116th overall championship contested by the league.
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| Dates | January 17 – February 3, 2016 | ||||||||||||||
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| MVP | Chris Ross (San Miguel Beermen) | ||||||||||||||
| Television | Local: Sports5 TV5 AksyonTV Cignal PPV (HD) Hyper (HD) Fox Sports International: AksyonTV International | ||||||||||||||
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This also serves as the rematch for both teams, as they competed for the 2014–15 Philippine Cup and for the 2015 Governors' Cup, a year and a conference, respectively.[2]
The Alaska Aces won the first three games to go up 3–0, behind Vic Manuel's outstanding performances.[3][4][5] Since then, the San Miguel Beermen won Games 4, 5, and 6[6][7][8] to force a Game 7 and became the first team in PBA history to force a seventh game, after being down 0–3, behind excellent performances from Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos. Game 5 marked the return of June Mar Fajardo,[9] who suffered a knee injury in Game 6 of their semifinals series against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
San Miguel won against Alaska in seven games to capture their 22nd PBA championship and their 6th Philippine Cup. Dubbed as "BEERacle", San Miguel became the first team in professional basketball history to win a series coming from a 0–3 deficit.[10]
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In the 2015–16 PBA Philippine Cup, the Alaska Aces and the San Miguel Beermen were the top 2 teams in the conference, both with a 9–2 record. In their head-to-head matchup in the elimination round, the Aces defeated San Miguel, 103–97 to clinch the top spot in the elimination round.[11] The Beermen finished second. With the virtue of being the top two teams, the Aces and the Beermen qualified directly to the semi-finals of the conference.
In the semifinals, Alaska faced the GlobalPort Batang Pier, who are making their first semifinals appearance in the history of their franchise.[12] The first game was won by GlobalPort, led by Terrence Romeo's career high 41 points.[13] Since then, the Aces bounced back to win 4 straight games to win the series 4–1 with the held, and make their 10th Philippine Cup finals appearance.[14]
San Miguel faced the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the other semi-final series. The two teams last played a semifinals series against each other during the 2015 PBA Governors' Cup. The first game was won by San Miguel, coming back from a 20-point deficit, behind June Mar Fajardo's double-double of 36 points and 18 rebounds and Ronald Tubid's outside shooting heroics.[15] Rain or Shine won Game 2, led by Jeff Chan's 16 points,[16] and Game 3, led by Paul Lee's 18 points.[17] The Elasto Painters were not able to win the next games and the Beermen went on to win 3 straight games to win the series 4–2 and to book their ticket to the finals.[18] However, June Mar Fajardo got injured with a twisted left knee during the game and was brought out of the Smart Araneta Coliseum, and was brought directly to the St. Lukes Medical Center in Taguig.[19]
Road to the finals
| San Miguel | Alaska | ||
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| Finished 9–2 (0.818): Tied with Alaska at 1st place | Elimination round | Finished 9–2 (0.818): Tied with San Miguel at 1st place | |
| 0.942 (2nd place) | Tiebreaker* | 1.062 (1st place) | |
| Automatically advanced after placing top 2 | Quarterfinals | Automatically advanced after placing top 2 | |
| def. Rain or Shine, 4–2 | Semifinals | def. GlobalPort, 4–1 | |
head-to-head matchup
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| Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | Game 6 | Game 7 | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Miguel | 91 | 80 | 75 | 110* | 86* | 100 | 96 | 4 |
| Alaska | 100 | 83 | 82 | 104 | 73 | 89 | 89 | 3 |
| Venue | Araneta | Araneta | Lucena | PhilSports | Araneta | Araneta | MOA |
Game 1
January 17 5:00pm |
| San Miguel Beermen 91, Alaska Aces 100 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 23–23, 19–15, 33–28, 16–34 | ||
| Pts: Cabagnot 20 Rebs: Espinas 8 Asts: Cabagnot, Ross 4 |
Pts: Manuel 24 Rebs: Abueva 13 Asts: Hontiveros, Jazul 4 | |
| Alaska leads series, 1–0 | ||
In this game, the Beermen and the Aces were tied after the first quarter as both team scored 23 points a piece. Then at halftime, the Beermen hold a 4-point lead against the Aces. After the third quarter, the Beermen scored 33 points as they got a nine-point lead over the Aces. But in the 4th quarter, the Aces scored 34 points to comeback from a nine-point deficit in the 3rd quarter and won Game 1 of the series.
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
January 29 7:00pm |
| San Miguel Beermen 100, Alaska Aces 89 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 22–29, 29–20, 16–17, 33–23 | ||
| Pts: Lassiter 26 Rebs: Santos 15 Asts: three players 3 |
Pts: Manuel 21 Rebs: Abueva, Manuel 9 Asts: Jazul 4 | |
| Series tied, 3–3 | ||
Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Attendance: 12,626 Referees: A. Herrera, P. Balao, N. Guevara, S. Pineda |
Game 7
February 3 7:00pm |
| San Miguel Beermen 96, Alaska Aces 89 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 22–16, 21–22, 25–13, 28–38 | ||
| Pts: Fajardo, Ross 21 Rebs: Fajardo 15 Asts: Cabagnot, Ross 5 |
Pts: Banchero 21 Rebs: Baguio 11 Asts: Abueva, Exciminiano 3 | |
| San Miguel wins series, 4–3 | ||
Mall of Asia Arena, Pasay Attendance: 23,616 Referees: N. Quilinguen, N. Guevarra, R. Dacanay, J. Oliva |
In a controversial move, Alaska head coach Alex Compton called for three straight timeouts at the start of the game.
By winning the game and the series, San Miguel became the first team in professional basketball history to comeback in a 3–0 deficit. This comeback is known as the "Beeracle". It was cited by The New York Times in a May 2023 article about a prelude to the Game 7 of the 2023 NBA Eastern Conference finals series between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat, where Miami led the series 3–0 before Boston won the next three games to force a game 7.[20][21] Unlike the Beermen, however, the Celtics lost the Game 7, rendering their comeback attempt as unsuccessful.[22]
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- a also serves as Alaska's board governor.
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The Philippine Cup Finals aired on TV5 with simulcasts on Hyper (both in standard and high definition) and Cignal TV channel 198 (in high definition). TV5's radio arm, Radyo5 aired it as well. Fox Sports Asia airs the games as well on a delayed basis.
Cignal TV provided English-language coverage of the finals.
| Game | Sports5 | Cignal TV (English) | Fox Sports (English) | ||||
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| Play-by-play | Analyst(s) | Courtside reporters | Play-by-play | Analyst(s) | Play-by-play | Analyst(s) | |
| Game 1 | Magoo Marjon | Andy Jao and Ryan Gregorio | Rizza Diaz | same commentators with TV5 | no broadcast | ||
| Game 2 | Charlie Cuna | Eric Reyes and Tim Cone | Sel Guevara | James Velasquez | Richard del Rosario | Nikko Ramos | Ronnie Magsanoc |
| Game 3 | Magoo Marjon | Jolly Escobar and Charles Tiu | Apple David | James Velasquez | Carlo Pamintuan | no broadcast | |
| Game 4 | Sev Sarmenta | Andy Jao and Ali Peek | Rizza Diaz | Aaron Atayde | Norman Black | Jude Turcuato | Vince Hizon |
| Game 5 | Magoo Marjon | Dominic Uy and Tim Cone | Sel Guevara | Charlie Cuna | Luigi Trillo | Nikko Ramos | Vince Hizon |
| Game 6 | Charlie Cuna | Quinito Henson and Tim Cone | Rizza Diaz | Aaron Atayde | Ryan Gregorio | Jude Turcuato | Ronnie Magsanoc |
| Game 7 | Magoo Marjon | Dominic Uy and Tim Cone | Apple David | Charlie Cuna | Richard del Rosario | Nikko Ramos | Vince Hizon |
- Additional Game 7 crew:
- Trophy presentation: James Velasquez
- Dugout celebration interviewer: Mara Aquino
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