MANILA: Arwind Santos hit the game-winning short jumper with six-tenths of a second left on Sunday and San Miguel Beer survived Barako Bull, 106-105.

It was a shot made special simply because it saved the Beermen from a huge upset and gave them sole possession of the PBA Philippine Cup lead.

But it was more special in more ways than it looked.

“That was for my mom, who is in the hospital watching,” Santos told Arab News in Filipino while walking back to his car. “I know that I made that shot because of the prayers that she says for me before my games.

“That was for her, to help her in her recovery,”

Santos’ mom has been confined for the last five days after having difficulty breathing, and Santos headed straight to the ultra-modern St. Luke’s Hospital and did not celebrate with the rest of the team after they rose to 5-1.

Another thing was that Santos was playing through a lot of pain caused by a hamstring injury and tightening of his calf muscles.

That shot allowed the Beermen to escape, although coach Leo Austria said that he hopes that his boys learned a lesson after taking the guards-loaded Energy for granted the whole game.

“You can see in the body language of our team that we took them lightly,” Austria said in Filipino. ‘Let this be a lesson to us that we should take every team out here seriously.”

RR Garcia dropped a three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining that had the Energy taking a 105-104 lead, and it looked like Barako Bull was going to go all the way after Marcio Lassiter missed a long jumper on the other end.

With the long rebound slipping past the hands of the 6-foot-10 June Mar Fajardo, Santos found himself at the right place at the right time, scooping up the looseball before launching the game winner under heavy pressure from about eight feet.

“I am happy to see Arwind make that shot, because he is not healthy,” Austria said. “A one-point win is still a win and I will take it with all my heart.”

Fajardo was also big in the crunch and finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds as he attacked the inside with impunity with the under-sized Energy able to offer only token resistance.

Ronald Tubid contributed 16 points and Santos finished with 15 and six boards in San Miguel’s second straight win.

Barako Bull, which came into the game the winner of its last two outings, dropped to 3-3.

Garcia, who scored 26 points in a 93-85 decision of Mahindra last week, had the last shot of the game in trying to win it for the Energy but threw up an airball at the buzzer.

Josh Urbiztondo finished with 19 points, Willie Wilson had 18 and Mick Pennisi got his 15 points from three-pointers for the Energy, who got just five points from national team player JC Intal.

San Miguel wasn’t the only powerhouse that barely got out of the way of a mammoth reversal, as Barangay Ginebra was pushed to the limit by Mahindra before prevailing, 80-76, in the second game.

Greg Slaughter scored 16 points and Joe Devance added 14 for the Gin Kings, who won consecutive games for the first time under Tim Cone’s watch to improve to 3-3 and get into the upper half of the 12-team standings.

“We’re just trying to find ways to grind out wins,” Cone told reporters later, obviously still not very impressed at the way his boys played.

Karl Dehesa fired 17 points to pace Mahindra, which has not lost two straight and is at 1-5, tied at the bottom with idle Blackwater and Meralco.