ANTIPOLO CITY, 8 April 2006 — Talk about getting an ugly gift on your birthday.
San Miguel broke out of the gates hard and finished with a flourish, winning for the fourth straight time by destroying Purefoods, 93-77, last night, which was supposed to be a special day for Chunkee Giants coach Ryan Gregorio for a number of reasons.
Gregorio’s 34th birthday was spoiled by the loss as San Miguel zoomed to the solo lead in the PBA Philippine Cup while dropping the Giants to a share of third place at the Ynares Center here.
And not only that, San Miguel coach Jong Uichico earned his second stint as coach in the All-Star Game later in the month while stalling Gregorio from earning the job himself.
There’s more.
Purefoods’ four-game winning streak was snapped after the Beermen opened up sizeable leads right in the first period and sustained this all night long to take leads of as many as 21 points at one stage in the fourth quarter.
San Miguel improved to 6-2 with the win, its fourth straight which duplicated the longest winning streak in the tournament currently being held by the Giants, now 5-3, and the idle Coca-Cola Tigers.
Danny Seigle dropped 30 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and Dondon Hontiveros continued a wonderful offensive recovery by chipping in with 19 points as the Giants were never really in the game when the middle part of the third period came.
From 40-31 at the half, the Beermen answered the third quarter horn with all guns cocked, loaded and firing as Hontiveros and Seigle took turns in inflicting the damage the Giants never recovered from.
Hontiveros, after averaging just 6.4 points in the first five games for the Beermen, hit all of his five attempts from beyond the arc for 15 third quarter points. He only had two points after the first two periods and didn’t need to shoot anymore in the fourth quarter with the outcome already beynd doubt.
Seigle, on the other hand, scattered nine in the third and already surpassed his 21.2 points per game average when he nailed a layup barely three minutes into the third canto.
Uichico will be calling the shots in the All-Star Game, set for April 27 in Cagayan de Oro, for the first time since guiding the Veterans to a 102-95 victory over the Rookies, Sophomores and Juniors squad in the 2001 extravaganza.
Sta. Lucia, meanwhile, snapped out of a three-game losing streak despite losing another big star to injury, bringing down Alaska, 89-82, in the second game.
Norman Gonzales, a third-string power forward who has not really earned his identity in the pros, shot a career-high 20 and grabbed 13 rebounds in leading the Realtors, who improved to 2-5 but stayed in the cellar just the same. Alaska dropped to 3-5.
Jimwell Torion debuted as a Realtor and gave a good account of himself, shooting nine points in his first game since being waived by Red Bull prior to the start of the tournament.
