MANILA: Refusing to die and become just a sorry footnote, San Miguel Beer on Sunday night fought as hard as it could and earned the right to fight another day in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.

Fluid in the stretch for a change, the Beermen avoided being swept by Alaska after pounding out a 110-104 overtime win at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig to take the best-of-seven title series into a Game 5 many thought wasn’t necessary.

And the Beermen pulled out the win by winning out in a wild, wild endgame, where they came back from four points down after the first minute of overtime.

It was the first time that San Miguel played according to its capabilities in the stretch and not allowing the Alaska defense to enforce its character on them.

“This is what we have been waiting for (since the start of the series), to get some breaks in the endgame,” coach Leo Austria of San Miguel said. The Beermen lost the first three games by going cold in the stretch each time.

“The players (Beermen) accepted the challenge, they just didn’t want to be swept,” Austria continued. “You can never know what can happen (in a series like this). I told the team in the dugout just before the game that a miracle is always just around the corner.”

Alaska was denied the chance to become just the sixth team in league history to win a best-of-seven title series with a sweep, and the loss left balloons hanging in the rafters.

This didn’t escape Austria.

“I’m sure they have been embarrassed,” Austria said of the Aces. “I’m sure they were preparing for a big celebration.”

The Aces forged extension courtesy of Cyrus Baguio, who drained a triple from way out at the buzzer for 98, a shot which looked like it would give complete momentum to Alaska in extension.

No team in the history of the league has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven series and San Miguel will try to creep closer toward earning a shot at that when Game 5 is played on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

The Beermen looked like goners with 3:31 left in the fourth period after JV Casio hit a three-pointer from deep left corner that made it 93-82. Alaska actually led by as large as 14 a couple of times, the last at 66-52.

But San Miguel came up with a whirlwind comeback and held a 98-95 lead going into the last 4.5 seconds after two Chris Ross free throws off a Vic Manuel foul.

Manuel, who will win the Finals MVP award if Alaska rules the series, scored the first four points of overtime as the Aces’ faithful started chanting MVP! MVP!.

But those two buckets would be the last that the Aces would make for a long time as Chris Ross engineered another San Miguel spurt, this time a telling one, by hitting the first four points in a 9-0 run that finally broke the Aces’ collective backs.

Marcio Lassiter scored 26 points to lead all San Miguel gunners and three more completed double-doubles, with Ross falling just one assist shy of a triple-double with 11 points and the same number of rebounds.

Arwind Santos had 11 markers and 12 boards and a crucial block on a driving Baguio that kept a 107-102 San Miguel lead intact heading into the final minute.

Manuel finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Aces.

“No one said it was going to be easy,” Alaska coach Alex Compton said. “San Miguel showed its character tonight and I think that our focus stayed (on the game after the Baguio triple).

“I thought our execution was poor. We had 21 turnovers. It was just us not being smart with the basketball,” Compton explained. “It’s a tough (San Miguel) team. It’s not going to be easy to sweep anybody. I just want to come out of this series with a championship.

Meanwhile, injured San Miguel franchise player June Mar Fajardo won the conference Best Player award as expected, with Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra finishing a very far second.