MANILA, 1 July 2007 — San Miguel just don’t want to go away.
Playing their fifth KO game in the PBA Fiesta Cup, the Beermen Friday night proved too hot to handle for Alaska, pounding out a 126-108 victory at the Cuneta Astrodome that forged a Game 6 in their semifinal series. The Beermen broke out of the gates hard and never let up, building double digit leads early and zooming ahead by as many as 24 points at one stage in the third to prune down the Alaska lead to 3-2 in their best-of-seven series.
It was the fifth time in this tournament that the Beermen have dodged the fatal bullet, counting the times when they made the wild card phase, the quarterfinals and later on the Final Four with a Game 3 win over Barangay Ginebra.
“We’d like to think of it that they (Aces) are on the same boat as we are,” San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen said. “They need to win one game (to close out the series) and we need to win one game (to stay alive).” Galen Young led the Beermen with 18 points, 11 of them coming in the breakaway first period. San Miguel went on to close the half leading, 56-40 and the third period with a 90-69 bubble the Aces were only able to chop down to 13 at best.
Five locals contributed 11 or more for Tanquingcen, the wonder worker for San Miguel, which started out this tournament with a franchise-worst 0-6 slate but won a string of eight games in the middle of the elimination round to get this far.
The Aces played in this venue for the first time in the tournament and it was clear that Alaska was not in synch all game long.
“Not to take anything away from my players, I think it’s human nature that they (Aces) were complacent tonight,” Tanquingcen added. “That could probably explain why they came out flat tonight.” Jeffrey Cariaso scored 21 points to lead Alaska and Willie Miller added 19. But 15 of those Miller points came in the final two periods when the Beermen were already comfortably ahead.
Talk ‘N Text moved on the brink of a first title series appearance in two years after out-steadying defending champions Red Bull, 112-111, in the early game.
Import JJ Sullinger provided the muscle and the firepower in a torrid fightback in the final quarter, finishing with 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists despite hobbling from the second quarter on.
Sullinger, slowed down by a mild left ankle sprain, scored 10 points inside the final 2:06, carrying the Phone Pals back and past the Bulls in the stretch to ease up front, 3-2, in their best-of-seven series.
Sullinger, a prime Best Import candidate, hit eight straight points when the Phone Pals were down, 100-104, capping the streak with a three-pointer from right quartercourt that put Talk ‘N Text ahead for good, 108-106 entering the final 61 seconds.
His final two points, which came from the free throw line off a Topex Robinson foul with 6.3 seconds remaining, sealed the deal for the Phone Pals.
The Phone Pals could make the Finals for the first time in two years with another victory in Game 6 tonight at the Araneta Coliseum, and Pumaren admits that closing out a team as resilient as Red Bull could be the toughest task of all.
Sullinger sprained his left ankle in a collision with Topex Robinson, but the Phone Pals relied on the hot shooting of Mac Cardona, who dropped 20 points in the first half on the way to again leading all Talk ‘N Text shooters with 30 points.
Talk ’N Text took a 13-point lead, 75-62, on split free throws by Belano with 4:39 left in the third quarter and then Cardona slowed down, fagged out at all the running he did, and this was the window that the Bulls waited for. James Penny tied the count at 88 with 9:32 left that set the tone for the torrid finish. Red Bull even led by six, 102-96, after two Celino Cruz free throws with exactly four minutes left.
Bulls guard Junty Valenzuela also sprained his left ankle in the second period after he landed on the foot of Don Allado. He is in danger of not being able to come back for the rest of the series, the injury so severe that he was rushed to a nearby hospital for X-rays.
