ANTIPOLO CITY, 6 May 2006 — Purefoods has been chasing San Miguel all tournament long.

And the Chunkee Giants couldn’t have picked a better setting to pull even.

James Yap scored four of Purefoods’ final five points last night and the Giants held the Beermen scoreless in the final 3:14 to win for the first time at the Ynares Center here and regain a share of the PBA Philippine Cup lead.

An 82-75 victory snapped San Miguel’s year-best streak at seven games and the Giants extended their own run to four as Purefoods caught San Miguel at the helm at 9-3 heading into the crucial stretches of the classification phase.

“This is really rewarding,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio, still pumped up during the customary winning coach’s interview.

The first time these two teams met, San Miguel was so much in the groove that the Beermen annihilated the Giants, 93-77, which would eventually set off one of the longest winning streaks in the league in recent times.

It was also the first victory for Purefoods in this venue since the Fiesta Conference last year, and defense had a lot to do with it.

Danny Seigle hit two free throws with 3:14 left that shoved the Beermen to within 75-77.

But that was the closest the San Miguel would come, and it was actually the last time that the Beermen would score as the league’s best defensive team clamped down hard on them to win with conviction.

Yap buried a jumper from top of the key after those Seigle free throws and Seigle missed a couple of shots, including a wide-open layup, to doom the Beermen.

Rey Evangelista, the veteran from collegiate power Santo Tomas, had the other point in that closing 5-0 run, splitting a pair of charities, before Yap put a lid on the outcome by canning a pair from the stripe for the final count.

While the best defensive team stopped one of the most explosive offenses in the league in the first game, Air21, the league’s worst defensive side, deteriorated further.

The Express found Red Bull too hot to handle later, dropping a 113-87 decision to the Bulls, who won for the third straight game and climbed the upper half of the standings.

Larry Fonacier presided upon a tenacious Red Bull breakaway in the second period and the Bulls completed the romp by shooting 55% from the floor in the third on the way to improving to 6-6 overall.

The victory meant solo fourth place for the Bulls, who played without head coach Yeng Guiao midway in the second quarter. Guiao was tossed after arguing a call with the referees and drawing his second technical.

But the ejection of the firebrand mentor fired up the Bulls further, and assistant coach Gie Abanilla actually did little coaching with the well-oiled Red Bull game working with precision on both ends.

Fonacier, the 6-foot-2 shooting guard out of the Ateneo, finished with 19 points built around a 6-of-7 clip from the field and all the others also clicked as Red Bull dealt the Express their worst loss under coach Bo Perasol.

Air21, which allowed 102 points a game prior to last night, dropped to 4-8.