San Miguel's June Mar Fajardo. PBA Images

MANILA (UPDATED) – San Miguel has evened the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup championship series at two games apiece. 

The Beermen took down the Meralco Bolts, 111-101, in Game 4 of the best-of-seven series on Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, in the process avoiding a 3-1 hole.

Coach Jorge Gallent might be okay with the win, but he acknowledged the reality they're in—San Miguel is still far from winning the chip. 

"It's a great win for us today, 'no, but we just tied the series and we just made it a best-of-three," the Beermen maestro said. 

Their victory today also came from a "lot of talking during practice," Gallent asserted.

"I'm just happy that we talked about a lot of stuff yesterday in practice and we just talked to one another and said that, 'you know, if we trust our teammates and we share the ball, that offense will come,'" Gallent bared. 

"And it showed now. We had 111 [points], I think this is the highest output in this series."

READ: June Mar Fajardo is Best Player of 2024 PBA Philippine Cup

True enough, it was the powerhouse's best outing this Finals in terms of offense, headed by June Mar Fajardo who bagged his 10th Best Player of the Conference award — extending the best record in the league. 

Fajardo marked the night by putting up 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting on top of 13 rebounds. 

San Miguel also had valuable contributions from CJ Perez, who added 22 markers, eight boards, and six dimes, while the sharp-shooting Marcio Lassiter tallied 18 points on an efficient 7-of-10 clip—with four of those coming from the rainbow country. 

SMB also won in terms of bench points, where they got a lot of help from second stringers who put up 28 compared to Meralco's 15. 

"It's just a mindset of these players to trust one another and to share the ball. That's the philosophy," Gallent said. 

His wards had 20 assists in the win, while in contrast, Luigi Trillo's only had 15.

READ: PBA: Newsome the hero as Meralco slips past SMB for 2-1 lead

READ: PBA: Fajardo gives credit to Meralco's defense, eyes rest ahead of Game 4

Meanwhile, squandered in the loss was a career-best 40-point explosion from Meralco veteran Chris Newsome and Chris Banchero's 21 markers. 

Meralco was still a jump away from SMB in the payoff period when they closed in at 85-88 with more than eight minutes left. But Terrence Romeo, who made his first appearance in the series, nailed a basket and Mo Tautuaa followed it through to make it a three-possession match, 85-92. 

Since then, it was all SMB as the Fajardo-led squad essentially pulled away in Game 4. 

Back-to-back conversions from Perez in the dying moments marked the San Miguel victory as the lead ballooned to double digits, 110-99, with 47 seconds left in regulation. 

The Scores:

SAN MIGUEL 111 – Fajardo 28, Perez 22, Lassiter 18, Tautuaa 9, Trollano 8, Manuel 8, Romeo 7, Ross 6, Cruz 5, Brondial 0, Teng 0

MERALCO 101 – Newsome 40, banchero 21, Hodge 17, Maliksi 9, Quinto 6, Bates 4, Almazan 2, Rios 2, Caram 0, Torres 0

QUARTERS: 29-22, 51-40, 82-74, 111-101