MANILA, 7 July 2003 — After stopping Asi Taulava in Wednesday’s Game 1, defending champions Coca-Cola shackled the rest of the Talk ‘N’ Text Phone Pals on Saturday night.
The Tigers allowed Taulava to get his numbers but worked their way in stopping the other Phone Pals en route to a 92-89 win and a commanding 2-0 lead in the Samsung-PBA All-Filipino Cup best-of-seven series at the Araneta Coliseum.
Coca-Cola’s game plan was plain and simple: stay in the zone, challenge every shot and hack Taulava every time he gets the ball down low.
The ploy worked wonders for Coca-Cola as Taulava missed a bundle of free throws and Talk ‘N’ Text muffed a total of 20 charities which could have given them the win.
So the Tigers raced to a comfortable two-game lead and a big advantage going into Game 3 at the Big Dome.
As always, the Tigers banked on their balance scoring production and even got some bonuses from unlikely sources.
Rob Wainwright, one of the role players in the team, asserted himself on the offensive end on a night Rudy Hatfield couldn‚t get his offensive game going.
Wainwright topscored for the Tigers with 20 points aside from grabbing 11 rebounds.
Veteran Johnny Abarrientos, also had the better of his matchup against rookie sensation Jimmy Alapag for the second straight game, adding 16 points.
In the first game, Shell defeated Purefoods, 82-73 as the Mabuhay Cup qualifiers got underway. Five teams-including Alaska, Sta. Lucia and Ginebra-will battle it out for the last slot to the second conference.
Shell coach Perry Ronquillo merely mentioned it in passing. But few would have believed him anyway.
Especially after the well-rested and healthy Turbo Chargers pummeled Purefoods at the start of the qualifying round for the PBA Mabuhay Cup.
