MANILA: Talk of a second wind, and Eric Menk and Barangay Ginebra are both having one.
Menk scored 18 of his 22 points in the final two periods last night, sustaining an eye-popping return from the injured list and propelling the Gin Kings to a third straight win in the PBA Fiesta Cup eliminations, a 100-94 decision of Burger King at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Now the eighth oldest player in the PBA at 34 years old, Menk hit Ginebra’s final six points inside the last two minutes as the defending champion Kings improved to 4-5, the same slate now held by the Whoppers, who dropped a third straight outing.
“He’s coming through for us,” coach Jong Uichico said of Menk, who missed the last four games because of a recurring calf injury before coming back in a 94-89 win over Rain or Shine last week where he scored 24 points in 25 minutes.
Menk was utilized for just 24 minutes last night, hitting 10-of-16 attempts from the field while snaring six rebounds even as new import David Noel debuted with a triple double as things look rosy, indeed, for the Kings.
Noel, who arrived just two days ago, also had 22 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists, three of them coming to Menk in the fourth period, the last making it 100-93 heading into the final 31.1 seconds which finally snuffed the fight out of the Whoppers.
Egay Billones, getting a call to start, hit 5-of-6 three-point attempts to finish with a career-high 27 points and lead the Whoppers, whose main man, Arwind Santos, was limited to just five points, his season low-tying mark. “There’s still no cause for us to celebrate,” Uichico added. “We can’t fall into a false sense of security and rest on our laurels. We haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
And when asked if he thought that he had the perfect import for the team, Uichico was very straight forward.
“He’s a hard worker, but we still don’t know his real strengths,” Uichico said of Noel. “We’ll try to find that in the next practices.”
Ginebra led by as many as 13 points in the first half, before the Whoppers engaged the Kings in a dizzying running game that the Kings were up to.
Billones’ fifth and final triple came at the final 6:29 mark and this shoved the Whoppers to within 85-89 before Chico Lanete drained a three of his own coming off a Ginebra timeout and Noel had a breakaway dunk for 94-85 with 5:30 left.
Burger King’s last gasp came at the final 3:15 mark, when Shawn Daniels hit a lay-up and was fouled to boot by Noel. But the burly import muffed the bonus free throw and Menk hit the first of his last three baskets off a Noel feed for 96-89 with two minutes left.
Talk ‘N Text slapped a fourth consecutive loss on Rain or Shine later in the night, getting 19 points from an “off-form” Tiras Wade and double figures from five locals in a 102-96 victory.
The Tropang Texters stayed in third spot with a 5-3 card heading into the All-Star break, while the Elasto Painters, who muffed a mind-boggling 10 straight free throws in a span that bridged the third and fourth periods, dropped to a level 5-5 card.
Seven of those 10 missed freebies came inside the final 13 seconds of the third, which would have allowed the Painters to bloat an eight-point lead and take at least a 15 point bubble into the final 12 minutes.
“Wow, they missed that many,” Talk ‘N Text coach Chot Reyes asked in amazement. “I thought it was just five or six. Well, those are the breaks of the game that come your way and you have to capitalize on them.”
Meanwhile, elimination round action takes a break this week to give way to the All-Star festivities that will be made up of three games featuring the Philippine Team coached by Burger King’s Yeng Guiao.
The North All-Stars take first crack at the Nationals tomorrow in a game at the Victorias City Sports and Amusement Center in Negros Occidental at 5 p.m.
Members of the first batch of league delegates travel to that quaint city in the south today with the North All-Stars which will be beefed up by Daniels and Tiras Wade of Talk ’N Text.
