ANTIPOLO: Bo Perasol, the soft-spoken Air21 coach, had every reason to talk with a lot of bravado after last night.
“We wanted to make a statement that we are here (Finals) for real,” Perasol said, just minutes after steering the Express to a 124-90 demolition of crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra that squared their Fiesta Cup title series at one-game each at the Ynares Center. “We will not just roll over and die,” Perasol added. “We had to put doubts in the minds of the (Ginebra) players that they are beatable. Thirteen (straight) wins is something they can be confident about.”
Ginebra saw a 13-game winning streak - tied for the third-longest in league history - snapped last night. But definitely, no one expected it to come in the very lopsided way that it did.
Game 3 is scheduled tomorrow at the Big Dome in Cubao, and all indications now point to the Express as favorites for the rest of the series.
Air21 broke out of the gates hard and seized control at the very first chance it got, closing out the first half with a 13-point lead before bloating it to as many as 36 late in the fourth quarter to deflate the Kings’ growing confidence.
Like in the series opener which they lost horridly, the Express took the early lead. Only this time, they played with a lot of poise and championship savvy they lacked in Game 1 to win pulling away.
Baskets came from almost everyone during the blitzkrieg that left the Kings gasping for air.
Steven Thomas redeemed himself from a lethargic effort against Best Import Chris Alexander, holding down the Ginebra giant to harmless numbers, especially in the first half when the Express made several moves. After shooting 18 points and grabbing 25 rebounds in the series opener, Alexander was taken out of his comfort zone by Thomas and a gang-rebounding ploy by the Express, who finally looked like they belonged in the Finals.
Alexander had just four rebounds in the first two periods, one in the entire first quarter, where Thomas already plucked down nine of his own to set the tone of the mismatch almost no one expected would happen.
Thomas, in fact, was played for just 33 minutes, recalled to the bench with under two minutes left in the third quarter after contributing his share of 10 points and 18 rebounds, 10 of them offensively. Gary David and Arwind Santos also delivered strong performances, with David shooting 13 of his 20 in the third period and Santos finishing with the same number aside from helping put the cuffs on Mark Caguioa.
Caguioa did shoot 29, but most of them came during garbage time after he was held to just six points in the first half.
A pall of gloom also descended over the Ginebra locker room after Jay-Jay Helterbrand, who won the Best Player of the Conference award earlier, was carried off the floor late in the third quarter after pulling his left hamstring in a coast-to-coast play.
Air21 actually held the Gin Kings scoreless for close to a seven-minute span that bridged the second and third periods, dropping a 14-0 run along the way to fatten a 58-45 halftime lead to 72-45.
Ginebra’s first basket in the third period came from Caguioa, who was put back into the fray despite four fouls for the injured Helterbrand. He made a three-pointer with 6:36 left and then a free throw before the Express broke away for good.
Another spurt, highlighted by three free throws off technical fouls called on several Ginebra personnel, including coach Jong Uichico, gave the Express a 90-58 with 72 seconds before the end of the third quarter.
Meanwhile, after finishing a very close second to Caguioa in the statistical points race, Helterbrand won out in the voting among media, fellow players, TV and the Commissioner’s Office to total 1,403 points and bag the Player of the Conference trophy.
That was a good 502 points ahead of Caguioa, the winner of the BPC when the Kings won a championship for the last time, the Philippine Cup last year.
