MANILA: San Miguel Beer goes wherever June Mar Fajardo goes.

That was what many believed, until Friday night.

The Beermen stepped up as a team when Fajardo was wheeled out on a stretcher, as San Miguel went on to pound Rain or Shine to score a 90-82 victory and get the chance to defend its PBA Philippine Cup title at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Fajardo twisted his knee in the third period during a rebound play, crumbling on the floor while clutching his left knee before being picked up by paramedics and never coming back.

The 6-foot-10 reigning two-time MVP was rushed to a nearby hospital after complaining that he couldn’t bend his knee inside the dugout. He was scheduled for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) tests later on Friday night.

Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos manned the fort when Fajardo left, and Gabby Espinas and Yancy de Ocampo also had bursts of brilliance as the Beermen, who were down, 47-52 when Fajardo left, turned it around in an instant.

San Miguel was still fluid even without its franchise player that the Beermen even went to take an 82-67 lead, which the Elasto Painters couldn’t recover from as they were the ones who seemed to have been disoriented.

Lassiter fired 22 points, while Santos was adjudged as the game’s Best Player after shooting 15 markers, grabbing 19 rebounds and swatting away two enemy attempts.

The win, which enabled the Beermen to close out this Final Four series, 4-2, was the third straight for San Miguel.

San Miguel will thus advance to clash with Alaska in a repeat of last season’s title series where the Beermen prevailed in a Game 7 to remember where Santos was the hero.

The coming series will also mark the third time in the last four conferences that San Miguel and Alaska will be playing for the title, with the Beermen, after that 4-3 win and a 4-0 sweep in the Governors’ Cuop last season, shooting to remain perfect against the Aces.

“It’s sad what happened to June Mar,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria told reporters. “When he got hurt, everybody stepped up, unlike in the first half when we played like we didn’t have the energy.”

“Being in the Finals is something special for us. We are very proud of it,” added Austria, who will also be shooting to win his third title as a coach.

Beau Belga led Rain or Shine with 16 points, with Gabe Norwood and Jewel Ponferada shooting 14 apiece and Jeff Chan contributing 11.

It was such a wasted opportunity for the Painters, who had hoped to taking this series to a deciding Game 7 in order to face a worn out San Miguel side and Fajardo.

The Painters had their chance but simply couldn’t hold it together against a much smaller San Miguel team that got a lift from Espinas and De Ocampo. Espinas finished with nine points.

Meanwhile, a new team could debut when the Commissioner’s Cup, the season’s second offering, opens on Feb. 10 with sources on Friday saying that a sale of the Barako Bull franchise to an undisclosed buyer is “nearing completion.”

A source, who spoke on the condition that he is not identified, told Arabnews that the sale is almost a done deal, though he refused to identify the buyer.

A separate source, when contacted by Arabnews, said that three companies are interested in participating in the PBA and are interested in the Barako Bull franchise.

The three, Lamoiyan Corporation, Racal Motors and Phoenix Petroleum, all have pending expansion applications with the PBA, but a buyout of the Barako Bull franchise will then hasten the entry for one of them.