Champion San Miguel Beermen Location Philippines | Dates 17 Jan 2016 – 3 Feb 2016 | |
MVP Chris Ross
(San Miguel Beermen) Television Local:
Sports5
TV5
AksyonTV
Cignal PPV (HD)
Hyper (HD)
Fox Sports
International:
AksyonTV International Game 1: A. Herrera, P. Balao, E. Tangkion, J. Oliva Game 2: P. Balao, J. Mariano, E. Tangkion, J. Oliva Game 3: N. Quilinguen, P. Balao, E. Tangkion, S. Pineda Game 4: N. Quilinguen, R. Marabe, R. Dacanay, J. Oliva Similar 2014–15 PBA Philippin, 2015 PBA Commissioner's Cup, 2015 PBA Governors' Cup | ||
The 2015–16 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Finals was the best-of-7 championship series of the 2015–16 PBA Philippine Cup, and the conclusion of the conference's playoffs. The Alaska Aces and the San Miguel Beermen competed for the 37th All-Filipino championship and the 116th overall championship contested by the league.
Contents
This also serves as the rematch for both teams, as they competed for the 2014–15 Philippine Cup and for the 2015 Governors' Cup, a year and a conference, respectively.
The Alaska Aces won the first three games to go up 3–0, behind Vic Manuel's outstanding performances. Since then, the San Miguel Beermen won Games 4, 5, and 6 to force a Game 7 and became the first team in PBA history to force a seventh game, after being down 0–3, behind excellent performances from Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos. Game 5 marked the return of June Mar Fajardo, who suffered a knee injury in Game 6 of their semifinals series against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
San Miguel won against Alaska in seven games to capture their 22nd PBA championship and their 6th Philippine Cup. Dubbed as "BEERacle", San Miguel became the first team in professional basketball history to win a series coming from a 0–3 deficit.
Background
In the 2015–16 PBA Philippine Cup, the Alaska Aces and the San Miguel Beermen were the top 2 teams in the conference, both with a 9–2 record. In their head to head matchup in the elimination round, the Aces defeated San Miguel, 103–97 to clinch the top spot in the elimination round. The Beermen finished second. With the virtue of being the top two teams, the Aces and the Beermen qualified directly to the semi-finals of the conference.
In the semi-finals, Alaska faced the GlobalPort Batang Pier, who are making their first semi-finals appearance in the history of their franchise. The first game was won by GlobalPort, led by Terrence Romeo's career high 41 points. Since then, the Aces bounced back to win 4 straight games to win the series 4–1 with the held, and make their 10th Philippine Cup Finals appearance.
San Miguel faced the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the other semi-final series. The two teams last played a semifinals series against each other during the 2015 PBA Governors' Cup. The first game was won by San Miguel, coming back from a 20-point deficit, behind June Mar Fajardo's double-double of 36 points and 18 rebounds and Ronald Tubid's outside shooting heroics. Rain or Shine won Game 2, led by Jeff Chan's 16 points, and Game 3, led by Paul Lee's 18 points. The Elasto Painters were not able to win the next games and the Beermen went on to win 3 straight games to win the series 4–2 and to book their ticket to the finals. However, June Mar Fajardo got injured with a twisted left knee during the game and was brought out of the Smart Araneta Coliseum, and was brought directly to the St. Lukes Medical Center in Taguig City.
Series summary
*overtime