MANILA, 15 June 2006 — Sing no sad songs for Red Bull yet.
On the other hand, the Barangay Ginebra faithful should be the ones having something to worry about given the way the Barako played Game 4 last night.
Red Bull came out snorting, establishing season-highs in scoring while ripping the defending champion Gin Kings, 118-97, to forge a decider in their best-of-five quarterfinal series in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Barako snapped a two-game slide in the series, and they did it with a lot of flair after shooting a year-best 35 points in the first quarter, 60 at the half and completing the domination with their game total.
Ginebra was so outclassed to trail by as many as 35 points early in the second half and never got the deficit below 20 points until the final horn, as the Kings take with them a badly-deflated ego to go with their severely-depleted lineup into the rubber match tomorrow at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
The winner of this series will advance to face No. 2 San Miguel in a best-of-seven series in the Final Four, even as Alaska formalized its march opposite the top-ranked Purefoods Chunky Giants also after an emphatic win.
The Aces answered the second quarter horn with all guns cocked and firing, breaking away from a tight first period with runs one after the other which Coke couldn’t stop as Alaska ultimately wrapped their series up, 3-1 after a 94-69 win.
Willie Miller scored seven of Alaska’s first nine points in the period and coach Tim Cone even had the luxury of fielding in his reserves right there as the Aces led by as many as 28 points at one time to all but put the game to bed.
Nic Belasco finished with 15 points and eight rebounds for the Aces, the dynasty of the 1990s who will be making their first Final Four appearance in six conferences.
“I have always told my coaching staff that we have yet to play our best game in this series,” Cone later said. “I guess this was it.”
So efficient were the Aces on both ends that they held the Tigers to a season-low 25 points in the first half — and it should have just been 23 if not for a lousy foul given up Eddie Laure on John Arigo from well beyond halfcourt which resulted in two free throws.
