MANILA: Pushed against the wall, San Miguel just came up with another desperate measure and reaped the fruit.

A new coach again called the shots for the Beermen, who survived elimination with a 96-94 decision of Alaska to extend their best-of-seven PBA Fiesta Conference championship series into a sixth game at the Araneta Coliseum.

Gee Abanilla was the latest to be tapped to give Siot Tanquingcen a spell on the bench, and the Beermen looked a lot different as they controlled majority of the contest to prune the Aces’ lead to 3-2 and keep their wafer-thin hopes alive.

Abanilla utilized players who often warmed the bench in these playoffs, with Denok Miranda starting at the point and delivering big time and Mick Pennisi getting some minutes and providing timely baskets and some inside presence for San Miguel.

Miranda knocked in San Miguel’s last basket with 2:14 left, a long two-pointer that hit nothing but net, and it proved to be the marginal twinner after Cyrus Baguio barely missed winning it all for the Aces with a triple at the buzzer.

“Alaska will make the adjustments,” Abanilla told reporters after notching his first win in a title series. He also had stints calling the shots for Red Bull under Yeng Guiao, but never in games of this magnitude.

“Tim (Cone) is a very brilliant coach and will use technical and motivational adjustments,” Abanilla, who said he expects to again be at the San Miguel helm on Wednesday, added. “I think a coach who can motivate and bring out the best in his players will be successful in the next game.”

Pennisi hit three triples and finished with nine points, three rebounds and an assist as he played good enough defense in trying to muscle Diamon Simpson out of his sweet spot underneath.

Jay Washington led San Miguel with 19 points, rebounding from a five-point effort in Game 4 where the Beermen were humbled, 96-90, to be on the brink.

San Miguel shot close to 56% from two-point zone and almost 90% from the stripe as the Beermen made 16-of-18 freebies.

The Beermen took a 10-point lead with 8:01 left at 89-79 after Gabriel Freeman, the tournament’s Best Import, hit a running jumper off Simpson. And just when it looked like San Miguel would coast the rest of the way came another hard Alaska finish.

Down 90-96 after that Miranda jumper, Baguio drained a triple just 10 seconds later and a folly of misses allowed Alaska to creep within a bucket after Simpson split his charities off Washington with 1:20 left.

Arwind Santos then missed a three-pointer for the Beermen and coach Tim Cone called a timeout for Alaska that set up Baguio perfectly for the potential game-winner.

But the attempt bounced hard against the iron, triggering a loud celebration among the predominantly San Miguel gallery.

“We just didn’t play well enough to win tonight,” Cone said. “We had the last shot but came up short. Generally throughout the game they outplayed us. But our guys didn’t quit and that’s good. We’ll see if we can close it out on Wednesday.”

Simpson still went on to lead the Aces with 29 points and 18 rebounds and Joe Devance added 15 markers.

But Cone came into the press room still brimming with confidence, for after all, he still has two shots to wrap this series up starting with Game 6 on Wednesday also at the Araneta Coliseum.

“We took their best punch tonight and almost survived it,” Cone said. “We’re a confident team and we have to finish this quick because Diamon has another job waiting for him in Turkey.”