Tim Cone described it best.

“Talk about being put in the wringer,” Cone told scribes last night, shortly after his San Mig Coffee crew needed overtime before hacking out a 92-87 decision of Petron Blaze for a semifinal seat in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

With the seventh-seeded Boosters playing great and Cone’s second-ranked Mixers struggling, San Mig had to battle back from 11 points down in the third quarter through sheer individual talent before advancing.

“Just the idea of facing Petron in the quarterfinals is scary,” Cone said. “We just wanted it to be a ‘one-and-done’ deal. We just didn’t want to go into a second game because honestly, I don’t think we could beat them in a second game.”

San Mig came into the contest needing to win just one game over the Boosters to march on, a privilege the Mixers earned for finishing second behind Talk ‘N Text, which booked the first Final Four slot earlier, also in tightrope style.

“It was a crucial performance for us to knock them out,” Cone continued in praise of his wards. “It was a gritty performance by our guys. It wasn’t pretty and it took a lot of individual effort for us to win.” Mark Barroca was the biggest individual performer in the stretch for Cone, as he shot 12 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and in extension, with his four overtime points coming inside the final 1:21.

James Yap scored 23 points and Marc Pingris added 20, with the duo fighting hardest in the middle two periods just to keep the Mixers in the thick of the fight.

June Mar Fajardo, the No. 1 overall pick in the Draft, had career highs in points and rebounds with 22 and 15, helping the Boosters play with control more than 85% of the way.

But Petron just couldn’t finish off the Mixers, with the Boosters’ bid suffering a major blow with 5:51 left in the fourth period when Marcio Lassiter suffered a bad fall and had to be carried out of the floor straight to a waiting ambulance.

Lassiter made life hard for Yap, and after falling hard on his back while trying to prevent an alley-oop play, Yap was able to contribute four points in overtime for the Mixers.

Lassiter was placed on a spine board and was taken to the St. Luke’s Global Hospital for a series of tests.

San Mig will face the winner of the Rain or Shine-Barangay Ginebra best-of-three series, which the Elasto Painters will try to wrap up tonight.

The winner of the Alaska versus Meralco pairing, on the other hand, will advance to clash with the defending champion Tropang Texters in the semifinals. The Aces have a 1-0 lead and could also wrap things up tonight.

Ranidel de Ocampo hit a critical triple with 25.3 seconds remaining and keyed a 105-100 victory by the three-peat seeking Texters over Air21 in the first game.

It was a hard-earned victory for coach Norman Black, who admitted to having the weaknesses of his team exposed by the No. 8 squad which most everyone thought the Texters would dominate with ease.

“Hat’s off to Air21, they were well prepared and they defended us very well,” Black said after the win with a poker face. “They are much better than their record.”