Gabe Freeman provided the crucial baskets to power the San Miguel Beermen to a pulsating 106-104 win against the defending champion Barangay Ginebra Kings Wednesday night in Game 4 of the Finals of the 2009 Motolite PBA Fiesta Conference. San Miguel thus leveled the Finals at 2-all, reducing the championship series into a best-of-three affair. Freeman followed up his own miss with 26.3 seconds left and then hit a pair of charities in the last 13.5 seconds of the game to give San Miguel a 105-101 lead. But then David Noel drained a three-point shot to put Ginebra to within one with still 10.7 seconds left. On the return play, Mike Cortez split his charities, giving Ginebra the chance to tie or win the game with a triple. The Kings opted for a three-point shot, and they had two chances to steal the game. But both Chico Lanete and Ronald Tubid missed their attempts as San Miguel escaped with a victory. Game 5 will be played on Monday after the PBA decided to take a two-day playing date break because of the unavailability of the Araneta Coliseum. No games will be played Friday and on Sunday. If the series stretches into a Game 6 and 7, both these matches will be played on July 15 and July 17, respectively, at the Araneta Coliseum. Freeman topscored for San Miguel with 23 points. He also snared 21 rebounds. Dondon Hontiveros also regained his shooting touch, finishing with 19 points, 11 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Cortez had 18 points while Danny Ildefonso chipped in with 15. San Miguel was called for 28 fouls, the second to the last of which came on Freeman as he was trying to stop Noel from attempting at the three-point line. But to the dismay of the legions of Ginebra fans, Noel missed all of his free throws as the count remained at 103-101 in favor of San Miguel with 16.2 seconds left. The Beermen had 23 second-chance points to the Kings' eight in a game that had 18 deadlocks and 17 lead changes. Jayjay Helterbrand, who was earlier named as the season's Most Valuable Player (MVP), missed the final minutes of the tense match after suffering a sore hamstring. He nevertheless scored 22 points, the same as registered by Noel. Meanwhile, Helterbrand was crowned the league's MVP this season after he emerged as the statistical leader and runaway winner in the voting among representatives from the media, players, television coveror Solar Sports and the PBA with a 3,220-point total. Burger King's Arwind Santos was second for the second straight year after garnering 733 points. Hontiveros was third with 650. Joining Helterbrand and Santos in the First Mythical Team are Talk N Text's Mark Cardona, San Miguel's Jay Washington and Coca-Cola's Asi Taulava. Hontiveros was relegated to the Second Mythical Team along with Willie Miller of Alaska, last year's MVP Kelly Williams of Sta. Lucia Realty and Rain or Shine's Gabe Norwood and Jay-R Reyes. Norwood was also the hands-down winner of the Rookie of the Year award, beating teammate Sol Mercado and TNT's Jared Dillinger. Santos and Taulava also made it to the All-Defensive Team alongside Ginebra's Billy Mamaril and Ronald Tubid and Burger King's Wynne Arboleda. Scores: San Miguel 106 - Freeman 23, Hontiveros 19, Cortez 18, Ildefonso 15, Villanueva 9, Washington 9, Pena 7, Pingris 6, Racela 0, Pennisi 0. Ginebra 104 - Helterbrand 22, Noel 22, Menk 21, Tubid 10, Reavis 10, Baguio 9, Salvacion 5, Lanete 2, Mamaril 2, Wilson 1. Quarters: 24-26, 47-46, 71-73, 106
