MANILA: Kenneth Duremdes talked in a very guarded way, just minutes when he had all the reasons to talk with a lot of bravado after his Coca-Cola crew brought down Philippine Cup powerhouse San Miguel.
“Making the quarterfinals is a long shot for us at this point,” Duremdes said even after a 105-91 victory over the Beermen last night at the Araneta Coliseum, which put his Tigers at 6-10 and within range of an outright spot in the quarterfinals.
And then he told everyone of why he thought of that as a long shot.
“Asi (Taulava) will be out for 6-to-8 weeks, so it could be more than the rest of the tournament,” the one-time MVP and interim Coca-Cola coach added. Taulava missed his first game of the season last night, but the Tigers didn’t show signs of playing without their main man with Nic Belasco stepping up to score 23 points and grab 15 rebounds.
“I challenged my players before the game, and they responded,” Duremdes told reporters. “Especially Nic (Belasco), who was off in his last two games, especially his last game, where he was 0-for-11.
“And from there, everyone, it seemed, followed Nic’s lead.”
But deep inside, even with Duremdes not admitting it, pulling off an act like last night’s going into the homestretch of the elimination round would be a tough act to follow with Taulava on the bench nursing a fractured left middle finger.
The 6-foot-9 behemoth, who averaged 16.4 points and 13 rebounds in the Tigers’ first 15 games, sustained the injury after a rebound scuffle against Talk ‘N Text last week which left Yancy De Ocampo bloodied in the left eyebrow.
And while Duremdes thought of his team’s chances as still unclear at this point, the loss painted a clearer picture as far as the Beermen’s aspirations for a top two spot are concerned.
San Miguel dropped to 9-7 and out of a tie for second place with idle Rain or Shine, leaving the Beermen with a tough final two assignments in Air21 and Purefoods, with no less than a sweep required for them to even have a Chinaman’s chance.
Mark Clemence Telan played a key role in the fourth period, scoring five of his seven fourth quarter points inside the final 2:40 as the Tigers broke an 87-all tie to break away, a 10-0 run finally settling the issue.
Ronjay Buenafe, the sophomore swingman, also had 18 points for the Tigers, hitting four clutch free throws inside the final 73 seconds.
The Express, meanwhile, also lost some ground like San Miguel, losing in upset style to Red Bull later in the night, 98-88, which put them into a tie for fifth spot with idle defending champion Sta. Lucia. Carlo Sharma scattered a career-high 22 points and six other Barako tossed in 10 or more as Red Bull chopped down another league heavyweight in the Express, who have tough Alaska and Talk ‘N Text as their closing foes.
The Express were led by the 21 points and nine rebounds of Ranidel De Ocampo, but Air21 trailed for most of the way last night even with Red Bull committing 31 turnovers for the game — tied for the most turnovers in a game for any winning team in the tournament.
Reason was Air21 shot just 32 percent from the field, including an atrocious 6-of-32 from three-point zone.
“I still think that are chances are very slim,” said Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao. “But nothing replaces the feeling of winning, even if you know that you are still down there in the standings.
“All I can promise is that we will continue to play to the best of our abilities and see how far we can go.”
