MANILA: Literally, June Mar Fajardo showed why he is a big star in the PBA today.

San Miguel Beer’s 6-foot-10 franchise player, ganged upon all of Sunday night by Ginebra San Miguel’s big men, still found ways to deliver and helped the Beermen pound out a 79-77 victory for solo second place in the Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

The 6-foot-10 Fajardo finished with 21 points, 15 rebounds and five swats, more than holding his own against the Gin Kings’ towering frontline that tried to stop him all night.

And Fajardo had solid support, with Arwind Santos shooting 22 points that went with nine boards as San Miguel snapped the Gin Kings’ three-game winning streak to rise to 5-1 overall and keep league-leading Alaska within range.

“It was one versus three (for Fajardo) out there,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria, referring to the way Ginebra tried to take away the Beermen’s strongest point with the 7-foot Greg Slaughter, 6-foot-9 Japeth Aguilar and 6-foot-6 Billy Mamaril.

“But he is really our go-to-guy and he delivered again,” Austria said. “We really prepared hard for this game because the entire team knew that the entire country would be watching this game.”

Fajardo and Santos actually saved the Beermen from a huge collapse as San Miguel nearly blew a seven-point lead heading into the final two minutes.

The Beermen were even ahead, 67-53, before the Kings came up with several spurts that had them equalizing at 72 courtesy of a Slaughter basket going into the final 40 seconds.

But Fajardo wasn’t going to let San Miguel lose, barreling his way past Slaughter for a reverse layup that shattered that tie, before Santos made four straight charities off Aguilar that kept the Beermen’s head above water.

Jay-Jay Helterbrand, one of four former MVPs playing in the game, hit a triple after the last of those Santos free throws to put the Kings with 77-78 with 5.9 remaining, before Fajardo was sent to the stripe off a duty foul by Slaughter.

Fajardo, who improved leaps and bounds after several stints with Gilas Pilipinas in tough international events, made the front end of those charities with Slaughter plucking down the rebounds off the miss.

But left with no timeout, Slaughter was forced to rifle an outlet pass to Joseph Yeo, who was greeted by a double team at the halfcourt and was forced to throw up a Hail Mary shot that wasn’t answered.

Yeo, who scored 17 points in each of the last two Ginebra victories, was held to just three points in 31 minutes of action.

Slaughter led the Kings with 16 points and 18 boards, while Aguilar finished with 15 but had a crucial miss which could have sewed things up again at 74.

Aguilar bungled a perfect alley-oop pass from Slaughter when his attempt to slam it home totally missed the mark. It was supposed to be the specialty of the house for Aguilar, who claimed he was undercut by Santos in the play.

Meanwhile, Barako Bull finally won one earlier in the night, when the Energy clipped KIA Motors, 87-71.

Jake Pascual, the rookie out of San Sebastian, had a career game with 22 points and 12 rebounds, leading the Energy to their first win is six games which could ultimately decide their playoff fate.

The Sorento got bumped off from 10th spot with the loss, their sixth straight after an opening day win, just a tad better than the 0-6 slate being held by fellow newcomer Blackwater.

LA Revilla, KIA’s pint-sized point guard, paced the Sorento with 21 points.