MANILA, 18 May 2003 — Somebody joked Jong Uichico, asking if Allan Caidic hadn’t sent him a thank you note yet.
As it turned out, Caidic had every reason to.
The Beermen, with just the second conference in sight, bounced back from a hypothermic first period and leaned on their zone defense, three-point shooting and a little of Danny Ildefonso to blow off Shell, 76-58, on Friday night in the Samsung Philippine Basketball Association All-Filipino Cup at the Ynares Center.
While the win had little effect on San Miguel’s standing this conference, it had a huge bearing for the Ginebra Kings, who couldn’t get anything going in the second game and simply watched as Red Bull torched them, 101-83.
“We did this for ourselves,” laughed Uichico, when he was asked for a reason why San Miguel went all out in a game it could very well afford to lose.
“We still want to make it to the Asian Invitationals,” added Uichico.
But there is no doubt that a San Miguel loss would have been big for Ginebra, which failed to gain headway in their footrace with Shell out of last place.
The Kings trailed by 13 at the half and when Nelson Asaytono and Willie Miller went to work early in the fourth, watched Red Bull take a commanding 89-52 lead that virtually decided the game. Lordy Tugade, who had a career-high 26 points, also contributed to the downfall of the Kings, making tough shot after tough shot.
As it is, though, Ginebra is still half a game behind Shell, just enough distance to make a sprint toward the quarterfinals when the eliminations reach the homestretch. Both teams will meet on May 25.
If Shell wins its last two games, Ginebra can still go for a win on the 25th and force a playoff for the last quarterfinal slot.
The Turbo Chargers could have drained the life out of the Kings with a win, but failed to keep up with the Beermen when they started hitting their shots in the fourth.
The Beermen, after shooting just 5 percent from the floor in the first period, made 11 of their 18 attempts in the fourth to pull away. San Miguel missed their first 16 shots of the game and threw the ball over four times before Boybits Victoria came off the bench to nail a mid-range jumpshot, 1:23 to play. The Beermen tied a franchise-low with six points in the first period after going 1-of-20 (.050) there.
Shell pounced on the Beermen’s cold shooting early, taking a 22-8 lead early in the second period, but Racela rallied San Miguel late in the first half, nailing a triple and baiting the overly aggressive Ronald Tubid into a foul from beyond the arc for three free throws trimmed the deficit to 32-28 going into the locker room break.
The Beermen trailed by four early in the fourth, but the team’s defense took away Dale Singson’s post game and Victoria nailed two triples that triggered the 20-0 run that turned the game around.
The Turbo Chargers were scoreless in a seven-minute span in the fourth.
