It was practically a rerun of Game 1 on Wednesday night, only this time, San Mig Coffee was able to write a different ending.

Despite going scoreless in the final 2:54, the Mixers pulled out a 77-76 victory over Rain or Shine to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series for the PBA Philippine Cup championship at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

And the Mixers did it by preventing another last-gasp basket by the Elasto Painters, who needed just the final 1.6 seconds of Game 1 last Friday to pound out an 83-80 victory.

Joe Devance scored the final four points for the Mixers, with the last bucket coming off a Marc Pingris assist with 2:54 left that made it 77-74.

After Rain or Shine made the score to what turned out to be the final count courtesy of Jervy Cruz with 1:24 to go, both teams bungled golden chances to score with Rain or Shine gaining possession in the final 10.6 to try and pull this one out again.

But the Mixers were smarter and more tenacious defensively this time, sticking to their men all the way with Devance forcing Jeff Chan to take a shot from close to 30 feet out that fell just a tad short of the mark.

“What an awesome game. It was a tough one to be part of it,” San Mig coach Tim Cone said. “We kept finding ways to stay in the game and it came down to the last couple of possessions.”

Paul Lee, who hit the Game 1 alley-oop that won the game for the Painters, was taken out of the inbounds play by Marc Barroca, who chased down the long rebound of the Chan miss to seal the deal for the Mixers.

James Yap, the former two-time MVP who is enjoying a rejuvenation of his shooting touch, ram amuck in the third period by shooting all but two of his 13 points, helping San Mig stay in the game as Rain or Shine tried mounting several breakaways.

Peter June Simon led the Mixers with 14 points and Devance and Yap scored 13 each with rookie Ian Sangalang contributing 12 to be the x-factor for Cone as Barroca and Pingris were held to just a combined 15 by the equally tenacious Rain or Shine defense.

Defense has been the trump card of both squads in this series as no team has scored more than 83 points in any of the first three games.

Rain or Shine actually had the lead, 74-73 with 3:54 left after a side jumper by Larry Rodriguez before Devance came up with those four straight points to open up that three-point lead.

The Painters would only score two more points the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, Barako Bull signed up NBA D-League veteran Dwayne Chism for the Commissioner’s Cup that opens in the first week of March.

Listed at 6-foot-9, Chism played for the University of Tennessee and will be coming off overseas stints in Turkey in 2010 and the tough Hungarian Basketball League last year.

Chism, a wide-bidied banger, also played for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the 2010-11 D-League and finished with averages of 8.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 27 games.

In a related development, June Mar Fajardo of Petron Blaze, which will be known as San Miguel Beer in the Commissioner’s Cup, is looming as the favorite to win the on-going tournament’s Best Player of the Conference award even if the Boosters were eliminated in the Final Four.

The 6-foot-10 cornerstone topped the statistical points race with an average of 38.8 with teammate and reigning MVP Arwind Santos coming in second exactly three statistical points behind.

Fajardo has become the favorite because none of the players coming from finalists Rain or Shine and San Mig Coffee are in the top five.

Only the top five in the SP race become candidates for the Best Player of the Conference award.

Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra finished third with 35.2 SPs per game, but the 6-foot-9 beanpole had a horrid playoff performance and this would greatly affect his chances in the voting.

Globalport’s Jay Washington and Greg Slaughter, the Ginebra rookie, round out the list of candidates.