The Beermen on Sunday night played with a sense of urgency and the hunger sorely missing in the previous game and hammered out a 91-83 victory over Derby Ace to become the first team to make the PBA Fiesta Conference title series at the Araneta Coliseum.

Starting out hot and finishing with a flurry, the Beermen repulsed numerous Derby Ace fightbacks to finally show the Llamados the door with a 4-2 victory in their best-of-seven series that was as physical as any other.

"Basically, that was the glaring difference in Game 5, our lack of effort," San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen said. "Derby Ace is a proud champion and it will not lie down and give it to you. You have to work for it. We thank God for blessing our effort." Gabriel Freeman scored 11 of his team-high 26 points in the fourth period, and Jay Washington and Arwind Santos were both big in the third as the Beermen marched on to the 31st title series appearance in the history of their franchise.

And Tanquingcen certainly has history on his side whomever he faces in that best-of-seven series, being unbeaten in three championship stints. He won his first two titles with Barangay Ginebra and then with the Beermen in this tournament last season.

San Miguel will await the winner of the Alaska versus Talk 'N Text series, which was knotted at 3-all following a 94-83 victory in the first game.

Washington and Santos had eight points each in the third quarter where the Llamados doggedly tried to turn several double digit spreads around.

Santos, who finished with 14 markers, also played topnotch defense on Derby Ace import Tony Washam, whom he held to just four points in the third quarter as San Miguel took a 71-58 lead into the fourth.

Washington also had a double double with 18 points and 13 boards while Freeman accounted for 22 rebounds as the Beermen again mangled the Llamados in the paint with a 56-45 edge in the rebounding department.

Washam still finished with 30 points and 12 boards to pace Derby Ace, which also couldn't get James Yap going offensively, with the leading Most Valuable Player candidate handcuffed to just 14 markers, none in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, the Aces sustained a high level of intensity the whole game and simply outworked Talk 'N Text, their Game 6 victory swinging momentum in their favor heading into Wednesday's rubber match.

"We had a really good game in terms of execution and playing both sides of the ball," Alaska coach Tim Cone told reporters. "We took a little advantage of our quickness and that surprised them somewhat." Cone had to make do with a small lineup with the injury to starting center Sonny Thoss as the Aces opened up an 18-point lead right in the first period before fending off the Tropang Texters the rest of the way.

From 30-12 late in the first period, the Aces played with complete command and were threatened early in the third period when the Texters crept within 57-59.

But it was clear that the Aces were in synch, as they slowly broke away again and established an 87-68 lead with 6:41 left after a basket by Reynel Hugnatan.

Talk 'N Text, though, still had some fight left and came within 83-91 after a Jason Castro basket made possible by a Kelly Williams steal.

And after a series of misses from both teams, Cyrus Baguio broke up an inbounds pass by Jimmy Alapag to Shawn Daniels and went all the way for an unmolested layup that put the game to bed, 93-83 with 1:45 left.

"Up until that point, actually, we didn't feel that we were in any comfort zone," said Cone, who bared that starting center Sonny Thoss will be out for the rest of the series because of chipped bones in his left foot.

It was certainly a bad way for Talk 'N Text coach Chot Reyes to celebrate his 47th birthday.

"The worst part of this loss is that we got outworked," Reyes said.

And while Reyes would like to look at potential import replacement Omar Sneed, he just couldn't with Shawn Daniels delivering and the locals sputtering.

Daniels, who has been holding on to his job for the last three games - two of them victories - scored 16 points and plucked down 11 boards with only Castro and Jimmy Alapag the locals delivering big.

Alapag scored all of his 20 points in the first half.