MANILA: Looking like goners for most of the game, San Miguel Beer came alive in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night and uncorked a swashbuckling finish that left even its coach dumbfounded.

“This is unbelievable. I don’t know what to say,” the Beermen’s Leo Austria told reporters after his crew rallied from 20 points down at the start of the fourth period to pull out a 109-105 victory over Rain or Shine for first blood in their best-of-seven Final Four series in the PBA Philippine Cup at Mall of Asia Arena.

“I really cannot explain this,” he added after his Beermen hit 6-of-12 triple tries in the fourth period and then withstood a hard Rain or Shine stance in the waning minutes for the proverbial psychological edge going into Thursday’s Game 2 slated at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

June Mar Fajardo and Ronald Tubid scored 11 points each in the fourth quarter and led San Miguel in dropping 38 points in that stretch.

San Miguel trailed by 22 early and was down, 91-71 at the start of the final frame before finally getting it all working as its defense held the Painters to just 14 points after Rain or Shine had scored 68 in the first half to lead by 18.

Beauj Belga and JR Quinahan, big men assigned to stop Fajardo defensively, scored the bulk of their points in the first two quarters and helped the Elasto Painters establish control.

But when the going got truly tough in the last 12 minutes, the duo, who finished with 19 apiece, were good for only a combined seven points in the second half.

“We just need to put this behind us,” Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said after coming out of a long meeting with his players in the dugout after the heart-rending defeat.

“This is a disappointing loss, obviously,” he said. “We have to come back on Thursday and learn from the lessons of today.”

Fajardo finished with 36 points and 18 rebounds, Tubid added 15 and Arwind Santos scattered 19 for San Miguel, which also dealt Rain or Shine a similar beating in Game 1 of their Final Four series in the Governors’ Cup last year.

San Miguel trailed by as large as 24 in that game and scored a 103-98 win, eventually closing out the Painters, 3-1, in the best-of-five series before prevailing in seven thrilling games over Alaska in the Finals.

Paul Lee saw action for the first time in the season for the Painters and played 17 minutes — several more than what Guiao had planned — and scored eight points built around two triples.

His attempt at a third conversion from beyond the arc just rattled out, and it would have forged a 108-all tie going into the final 11 seconds.

For Guiao, it was one of the bright spots he tried picking out of the loss.

“I think this (prolonged exposure of Lee) will go a long way in helping him out gain the confidence and timing in his game,” Guiao said.

Chris Ross also played a stellar role for the Beermen, hitting all seven of his points in the fourth period and finishing with seven steals, tied for the seventh most by a local in the history of the league.

Meanwhile, GlobalPort, after a swashbuckling victory in its series opener with Alaska on Monday, shoots for a 2-0 lead against the Aces as Final Four action goes to the Araneta Coliseum for the first time Wednesday.

Terrence Romeo will again be the focal point of the GlobalPort offense and the main concern of the Alaska defense, which the spike-haired guard put holes on everywhere on the way to shooting a career-high 41 points in a 107-93 Game 1 win.

“He’s just fantastic,” Alaska coach Alex Compton said in praise of Romeo.

Compton bared that he and his staff will go back to the drawing board to revisit their defensive strategy on Romeo.

“We have to play great defense and maybe hold him (Romeo) to 30,” Compton had said in jest on Monday, trying to find some humor after absorbing their worst loss of the season.

Alaska simply came out flat and wasn’t able to keep in step with the Batang Pier in practically every aspect, with GlobalPort showing more willingness to rough it up and get down and dirty in chasing the 50/50 balls.

“We got outplayed. They beat us fair and square,” Compton said.

GlobalPort coach Pido Jarencio is aware that Alaska has all the capability to come back and talked in a way that would keep his wards grounded and not get a false sense of security.

“We all know that Alaska is a very tough team,” Jarencio said. “This will be a long series. This (win) is just the first game.”