MANILA, 27 October 2007 — They are giants in the truest sense of the word.
At least, up until this point of the Philippine Cup. Purefoods rolled to its third straight win last night after surviving another test of character against sister team Magnolia, rallying from 17 points down for a 93-90 win and the solo elimination round lead at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Tender Juicy Giants brought down a second powerhouse side by climbing out of what seemed like an impossible hole in the first half and from 10 points down with 7:14 left for their best start in five seasons. A similar 3-0 start last happened for this franchise in 2002 when they went on to win this very same tournament at the expense of Red Bull.
Kerby Raymundo and James Yap delivered when needed and rookie point guard Chico Lanete had his coming out party as they combined in making the shots that mattered, when they mattered. Raymundo scoring on two nifty drives and Yap scored 11 of his team-high 25 points inside the last 6:15 as they carried the Giants in the stretch to deal Magnolia its first loss in three games. “We challenged ourselves before this game. I told them that if we want to be the best, then we have to beat the best,” said coach Ryan Gregorio.
“This continues to be a character test for us, because even if we’re down, we don’t lose focus,” he said when asked why his team has the tendency for starting slow.
Purefoods also rallied from a 16-point deficit to nip Sta. Lucia in its debut before coming back from 13 down to deal rock-solid Talk ‘N Text an ugly beating, 112-96, last week in Dumaguete City .
But last night, Gregorio had almost his entire lineup stepping up, with Lanete the biggest revelation. The 5-foot-10 guard whom Gregorio plucked out of free agency was asked to play more than his usual minutes after starting point guard Roger Yap was thrown out late in the second quarter because of a flagrant foul on LA Tenorio.
And he kept the Giants’ collective heads above water in the third, where Purefoods dropped 34 points to get back in the game and have a shot at winning it in the end.
In the first game, Jeffrey Cariaso scored 11 of his 22 points in the fourth period, including four straight inside the final 56 seconds, to key a 98-94 Alaska win over Coca-Cola.
Cariaso capped a surging Alaska finish with his brilliance, and he got a lot of help from fellow backcourt mates Willie Miller and Mike Cortez in sealing the Aces’ first victory in three games. The loss was the first in two outings for Coca-Cola, which flubbed control at the game’s most crucial times after going scoreless in a four-minute span at the middle of the payoff quarter.
“It’s really hard to win pretty. It’s really hard to win the first game,” said Alaska coach Tim Cone, who talked with the frenetic pace he described the games are going these days.
It was an old-fashioned, run-and-gun game that both squads engaged in. And Coca-Cola was the one that blinked as the Tigers blew an 83-76 lead. Cortez broke the game’s last tie at 90 by hitting two of four free throws and Cariaso made it 94-90 with a jumper from left quarter court heading into the final 56 seconds. Ali Peek forged that 90-all deadlock by completing a three-point play off Cariaso, and the Tigers would not score until the final 39.6 mark when John Arigo made two charities off Reynel Hugnatan, 94-92.
Hugnatan then gave the Tigers a chance to pull even, dribbling off his foot while going for a short stab. But that chance was thrown away by rookie Ronjay Buenafe, who traveled while trying to elude Miller in a drive to the hoop. And that led to two Cariaso charities off Egay Echavez with 13.5 left Cortez then sealed the deal with two of his own off Mark Telan which came after Arigo shoved the Tigers within two again with 8.2 to play.
“Hopefully, we will be a little more confident going into our game against Barangay Ginebra on Wednesday,” Cone added. “The pressure to win for the first time has been building.”
