MANILA, 10 July 2006 — Pushed hard against the wall, Red Bull responded in the way it was supposed to last night — snorting and rampaging its way out of trouble.

And in the words of coach Yeng Guiao, the best-of-seven series for the PBA Philippine Cup has suddenly become “interesting.”

Fluid on offense and its defense giving little room for Purefoods to operate, the Barako finally scored one in the bruising title playoffs, ripping the Chunkee Giants in Game 3, 89-79, to creep within a win of equalizing.

“We just wanted to win our first game (in the series),” Guiao said. “Purefoods still has the advantage (being 2-1 up), but this series has now become interesting.”

The key to the first Red Bull win was that the Barako held it together for a full 48 minutes, not letting up unlike in the first two games where they erased huge deficits each time only to relax and eventually lose. “Unlike in Games 1 and 2, we were able to match their defensive intensity for most of the game,” Guiao added.

Lordy Tugade, the team’s leading scorer who started for the first time in the series, rifled in 22 markers — 12 coming in the breakaway third period — as Red Bull undoubtedly wrested momentum heading into the pivotal fourth game on Wednesday.

The streak-shooting Tugade his 4-of-8 from beyond the three-point arc and point guard Celino Cruz, also getting the call to start, hit the other three triples for the Barako in the game that helped determine the outcome.

So effective was the defensive blanket that Guiao threw that the high-scoring Purefoods duo of Kerby Raymundo and James Yap struggled to combine for only 26 points on 9-of-26 from the floor.

It was such a far cry from the way they dominated the Barako in the first two games, with Yap missing all eight attempts from the three-point area and Raymundo, who finished with only 10 markers, limited to just seven field goal attempts.

Guiao even made Tugade play defense on Raymundo, neutralizing the Purefoods’ center’s mobility by putting a smaller, quicker man — much in the same way that Pat Riley of the Miami Heat assigned James Posey to guard Dallas superstar Dirk Nowitzki.

“They did something different and it paid off,” Gregorio, gracious in defeat, said.

The Red Bull defense actually forced the Giants to a total of 23 turnovers, which resulted in 24 points for the Barako, who got a total of five men shooting 10 points or better.

Enrico Villanueva scored 12 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had three assists, Cruz wound up with 11 markers like Junethy Valenzuela. Cyrus Baguio contributed 10 points off the bench.

Unlike in the first two games, Game 3 was low-scoring, with neither team getting into the groove until the Barako in the third frame.

From a 34-29 count at the half, Red Bull dropped 32 points in the third as Cruz hit two of his triples and Baguio and Villanueva accounted for another 10 points to complement Tugade. Only Fil-American forward Mike Hrabak, from among 11 men utilized by Guiao, did not score.

Yap’s 16 points paced the Giants, who got 15 points and 16 rebounds from utility power forward Marc Pingris and 11 from Roger Yap.

Meanwhile, San Miguel’s Danny Seigle won the Best Player of the Conference award in simple rites before the game, in the process becoming the first player in eight seasons to win the coveted individual honor despite not seeing action in the finals.

On Wednesday, the year-end Most Valuable Player will be named, with Raymundo, Yap and Pingris hotly disputing the honor against Tugade and Villanueva.