MANILA: San Miguel Beer’s much-ballyhooed offensive machine took the backseat on this one.

Showing that they can play defense, too, the Beermen on Wednesday night starved Alaska so bad in the fourth quarter and ran away with a 96-89 win for a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven series for the PBA Governors’ Cup title at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Except for Arizona Reid scoring 41 points, it was a relatively quite night as far as the other San Miguel gunners were concerned.

There were no eye-popping three-point percentages and outrageous number of players scoring in twin digits.

It was all about defense for the Beermen on this one.

“I really can’t say anything more about my players – they really wanted to win this one,” San Miguel’s Leo Austria, who also moved within a win of a second coaching title, said. “My players simply refused to lose. They all worked hard for this.”

Down, 81-85 going into the final 7:47, the San Miguel defense did not allow an Alaska score to come for more than five minutes, and Reid did the damage on the other end by scoring eight in a 10-0 run that had the Beermen zooming to a 91-85 lead going into the final 2:54.

It was virtually a replay of Game 2, where Alaska also blew cold in a crucial span to lose a five-point edge midway in the fourth period.

But that game saw San Miguel connect with impunity from afar that its defense wasn’t given much credit.

The Beermen drilled 17 threes in that game, with Marcio Lassiter hitting five to equal the output of the entire Alaska crew from that distance.

“I am not thinking of a sweep,” Austria said as his Beermen gun for the clincher Friday night also at the Big Dome. “What I have been telling my players all along is to treat each game as a championship game.”

San Miguel held the Aces to 12 fourth quarter points and rallied from four points down with under eight minutes left to play to move on the brink of a 21st title and complete its dominance on the season that’s about to end.

There have been 11 previous 3-0 series leads in the Finals in the 40-year history of the league, and only one team was able to take the series into a Game 6 before bowing out.

Interestingly, that team, the Alaska Milkmen of 1997, bowed to Gordon’s Gin in the Reinforced Conference, 4-2.

Six of those 11 series went into a fifth game and San Miguel will try to become just the fifth side to complete a sweep at 7 p.m. on Friday, though Alaska coach Alex Compton still refused to throw in the white towel of surrender.

“One of our building blocks is honor – we will honor the game, we will go out there and play (and try to win). There’s a first in everything,” Compton said. “I like swinging for the fences. We’re going to play like we know how.

“If San Miguel is to win this series, they have to earn it. “

Romeo Travis again lost horribly in his match-up with Reid, finishing with just 17 points and laying a big fat egg in the fourth period just when the Aces needed his contributions that most.

Calvin Abueva scored 15 and Sonny Thoss 12 for Alaska.

Chris Banchero scored on a layup with 2:03 left that snapped that long dry spell by the Aces, before Alex Cabagnot hit two free throws, which restored a 93-87 lead going into the final 1:21.

Another thing that compounded matters for the Aces was that they couldn’t prevent San Miguel from dominating that rebounding battle, losing it horribly, 58-36, with June Mar Fajardo, the cinch to win a second straight MVP before tip off on Friday, snaring down 19 boards and Reid 12.