MANILA, 19 January 2008 — The Kings reign no more.
Air21, fluid all night and playing with a lot of confidence, last night knocked the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings off their throne with a 119-110 victory as the Express advanced to the final phase of the Philippine Cup wildcard at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Ranidel de Ocampo drained a cold-blooded trey with 27.7 seconds left, dousing cold water on the last of a series of Ginebra fightbacks as the Express assured that this batch of Kings became the 22nd all-Filipino champion to fail to defend their title.
“My apologies to the millions of their (Kings’) fans,” Air21 mentor Bo Perasol said matter-of-factly. “We know for a fact that the crowd was behind them all night. But we have a job to do and I think we did it well tonight.
“And this victory will account for nothing if we don’t win on Sunday (tomorrow against Coca-Cola),” he added. “We have to come out with the same mentality as we did in this game in order for us to have a chance at winning.”
Asi Taulava was also apologetic in tone this time, but not after doing a lot of damage in the first game.
The 6-foot-10 behemoth scored 13 points and grabbed 16 rebounds and Mark Telan tossed in 22 as the two former Talk ‘N Text players led the Tigers to an 81-73 victory over the Phone Pals to also stay alive and be Air21’s foes.
Wynne Arboleda led the Express with a career-high 32 points, all but five of them coming in the first three periods, as he hit big-time shots one after the other that scuttled early rallies by the Kings.
But there wasn’t a shot bigger than what De Ocampo hit from left quarter court over the outstretched arms of Eric Menk, as that triple snuffed the life out of Ginebra as the Express took a 115-110 lead. And that shot restored order in Air21, which almost blew an eight-point lead with under three minutes to play as Ginebra crept to within two after a Ronald Tubid layup, 110-112, with 70 seconds to play.
De Ocampo finished with 29 points and Arwind Santos and Gary David scored 14 and 12, respectively for the Express.
Mark Caguioa tossed in 23 and Jay-Jay Helterbrand 21 for Ginebra.
Taulava made just 5-of-21 shots from the floor and 3-of-11 free throws but dominated the inside like he was supposed to as the Tigers led from start to finish and ousted one of the more formidable teams in the field.
“I apologize to my former bosses for the way I played against them in the last two games,” Taulava, looking fagged out after 39 minutes on the floor, said.
“This is nothing personal,” he added. “I wish the best to the Talk ‘N Text bosses, and I apologize, especially if I said anything (on Wednesday) that might have offended them.”
Telan, who turned 32 exactly seven days ago, scored six points in the first period when the Tigers gained control and 10 in the third in one of his finest games of the season — one which he said he planned right from the start.
“We really wanted to kill Talk ‘N Text and I think we did it,” the 6-foot-7 former La Salle ace told scribes of the team which also traded him to the Tigers after the end of the 2006 campaign.
Mac Cardona led Talk ‘N Text with 22 points, trying to carry the fight all by himself as only Ali Peek finished in twin digits with 14 with the rest of the high-priced, highly-regarded roster firing blanks most of the night.
Meanwhile, Carlo Sharma of Red Bull and Jondan Salvador of Purefoods were fined P25,000 and P20,000, respectively, on top of one-game suspensions for fighting in their game last Wednesday.
