Another tight finish, another well-crafted victory by San Mig Coffee.

The Mixers were simply better on both ends Friday night and carved out a 93-90 victory over Rain or Shine that put them within another win of pocketing the PBA Philippine Cup before a huge crowd at the Araneta Coliseum.

San Mig blew a 10-point halftime lead and needed to overhaul a six-point deficit entering the final quarter to grab a 3-1 lead in the series and gain three chances of wrapping up the first back-to-back title romps in franchise history.

It was the third straight victory in the series for the Mixers, who won Game 3, 77-76, on Wednesday.

Marc Barroca, Joe Devance and rookie Ian Sangalang stood out in the highest-scoring game of the series thus far, combining for 21 fourth quarter points that fueled the mighty San Mig comeback.

But coach Tim Cone is no stranger to handling – and even blowing – 3-1 leads.

“You can’t pat yourself on the back (yet),” Cone said. “I know there’s a lot of talk about how few teams come back. But I was one of the few (coaches) that lost (a 3-1 lead). So we have to keep pushing, keep working.”

In 2006, Cone, then coaching Alaska, also took a 3-1 lead in the Final Four of this same tournament against, interestingly enough, the same team that he handles now, before losing the next three games as he and the Aces went down in flames.

And Cone and the rest of the San Mig crew are awaiting results on the examination on the eye of Marc Pingris, who took a wayward finger on the right eye that made him leave the game with just under five minutes left in the third quarter.

“We won the battle (tonight) but I hope we didn’t lose the war with Ping,” Cone said. “Losing Ping for a length of time will be a big blow for us.”

From 70-76, the Mixers opened up with a 12-2 run to take the lead for good, before weathering several comebacks by the Painters in the stretch.

The Mixers also watched as the potential overtime-forging triple try by Paul Lee just rattled out, with Barroca collaring the final rebound of the night to seal the deal.

“I don’t know about you guys, but that Paul Lee shot certainly looked to me like it was going in,” Cone said. “We have been very fortunate (to win) the past two games. It was another close one today.”

Rain or Shine had several chances to tie it all up, or even take the lead, in the stretch only for the Elasto Painters to bungle those golden opportunities.

Trailing, 87-90, Jeff Chan missed a triple and Jervy Cruz what looked like a simple putback. Rain or Shine regained possession after a jumpball and sent JR Quinahan to the line for two charities only for the burly center to make just one going into the final 43.2.

“It’s a tough loss, but we’re not giving this series up until it’s over,” said Rain or Shine’s Yeng Guiao. “We’ll come back Sunday and try to get back in this series. It was another close game.”

Meanwhile, Petron Blaze’s June Mar Fajardo won his first Player of the Conference award in simple rites preceding Game 4.

The 6-foot-10 franchise player of the Boosters, who will be known as the San Miguel Beermen come the Commissioner’s Cup on March 5, won in lopsided fashion over teammate and reigning MVP Arwind Santos.

After topping the statistical points (SP) race also over Santos, Fajardo, a former three-time MVP in Cebu City’s Cesafi league, finished with a total of 1,268 points after also winning in the media, player and league votes.

The 24-year-old Fajardo got 39 out of 43 first place votes from the covering media and 22 out of a possible 26 player votes.

Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar, Barangay Ginebra’s twin towers, finished tied for third with Jay Washington of Globalport brining up the rear.