Alex Cabagnot dropped the game-winning lay-up with 1.7 seconds left Wednesday night as the Beermen escaped with an 86-84 victory over the Gin Kings for first blood in their best-of-seven Final Four series in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

"It's like a replay, right," San Miguel coach Ato Agustin asked reporters moments after the heart-stopping win witnessed by more than 13,000 screaming souls. "The breaks just went our way, I think." San Miguel actually blew a 14-point lead early in the fourth period to trail by 82-84 heading into the final 2:23 after a Mark Caguioa triple capped a 19-3 run that got the huge crowd into a frenzy.

But the Gin Kings would not score after that and they even threw away a crucial possession in the final 18 seconds and the score tied at 84 when Rudy Hatfield, who has been brilliant in the playoffs, gave up a strong pass to Caguioa.

And that set the stage up for Cabagnot to score the game winner for the Beermen for the third time this tournament.

"Coach just told me to have faith in myself and take the shot whenever I am free," Cabagnot said.

Jay Washington, who described this series to be stressful, led the Beermen with 19 points and nine rebounds and Cabagnot finished with 15, nine of them in the third period where the Beermen broke away.

"I don't think you can take away their energy," Washington said of the Kings. "They may be down, 10, 12, 14 points, but in two minutes, they come charging back and somehow don't get tired because of the support they get from the crowd.

"I'm sure that, if we had 13,000-plus fans watching us tonight, it would be more than 15,000 on Friday (for Game 2) considering how our teams have played the last three games," Washington said.

San Miguel has so far won its three meetings with Ginebra in this conference, the first two coming via one-point margins. And Game 1 of this Final Four took the same route, and luckily for the Beermen, they again ended up with the longer end of the stick.

Meanwhile, James Yap winning games for Derby Ace in the endgame is not unusual at all - unless it comes on the defensive end.

The gunslinger preserved an 88-87 victory over the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters with a steal in the final two seconds as Derby Ace sewed up their separate best-of-seven series at 1-all earlier in the night.

Playing at less than 100% with a nasty cough denying him a decent sleep the last three nights, the reigning MVP made up for a lackluster offensive effort with the defensive play of the game to give momentum back to the defending champions heading into Friday's crucial third game.

"It was all heart for all of us out there tonight," Yap told scribes in Filipino. "If I can't score, I really try to find ways to contribute defensively. I really didn't have it in me tonight. I just came out there and knew that I couldn't force the issue (offensively)." Peter June Simon scored 28 points in again ably filling in for Yap, and Rico Maierhofer, another vital cog playing under the weather for the Llamados, finished with 14 markers and six boards.

"This game was very big for us because it's very hard to go down 0-2," said Jorge Gallent, the rookie Llamados coach seeking to become just the sixth man in PBA history to steer his ball club to a championship in his maiden tournament.

"We're not just going to give our trophy away. They have to grab it from us."