MANILA: Barangay Ginebra coach Jong Uichico put it perfectly: “Now it’s a jump ball.”
This, after San Miguel last night had its offensive machinery humming in all cylinders that battered the defending champion Gin Kings, 98-84, to set up a you-or-me Game 7 for the Fiesta Cup title before 16,039 screaming souls at the Araneta Coliseum.
San Miguel scooted away in the second quarter before leading, 61-46, at the middle of the third after two straight Gabriel Freeman slam dunks as the Beermen won this one pulling away and will have psychological edge heading into the decider tomorrow.
“Actually, we haven’t done anything, we just tied it,” San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen later said. “The thing is God put us in this situation to test us. It’s how you respond to adversity that would define you, whether as an individual or as a team.
“This is still far from over, we have one game to go.”
Uichico tried doing almost everything but put himself in the game last night, all his moves turned out futile as San Miguel played according to its rock-solid potential with Freeman leading the way with his 21st double-double in the tournament.
The winner of the Best Import trophy scored 24 points, had 12 rebounds and three assists, playing better because he wasn’t saddled with fouls in the second half. He had 14 of his total in the third period when the Beermen broke away.
Danny Ildefonso, even with his six-year-old daughter in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy treatment, stayed as focused as ever, shooting 10 of his 18 in the fourth which hurt the Kings.
Though only two others scored in twin digits for Tanquingcen, he got all but one of 11 players contributing offensively, something which Uichico didn’t get from his players with Cyrus Baguio scoring just two points and Jay-Jay Helterbrand held to eight.
The newly-crowned MVP Helterbrand struggled for the second straight night because of a bad left hamstring, missing all five of his triple attempts while also finishing with just an assist in 27 minutes.
David Noel, after a fiery 29-point performance in Game 5, was shut down to harmless numbers by the clamping San Miguel defense. After shooting seven of the Kings’ first nine points, Noel was only good for nine more points the rest of the way, going scoreless in the second period when the Beermen broke away.
Game 7 is scheduled tomorrow also at the Big Dome with the Beermen not really having a good team record to crow about in such a game.
San Miguel has lost the last three Game 7s that it played in and has a 2-4 record.
Ginebra, meanwhile, has an unblemished 2-0 slate, the last coming in this tournament last year when the Kings came back from a 2-3 deficit opposite Air21 to win. The first time Ginebra won a Game 7 was when a Robert Jaworski-coached squad triumphed after Rudy Distrito hit a fallaway in the dying seconds to complete a 1-3 comeback opposite Shell and seven-time Best Import Bobby Parks.
“We could have finished it today, but it didn’t happen that way,” Uichico said. “Now it’s a jump ball (in Game 7). At least we have a 50/50 chance of winning the championship.” Uichico said that being in the series, and controlling it most of the way, is already a blessing in itself. Winning the championship, he said, would already be gravy.
It was the worst game in the series as far as the Kings were concerned, as they failed to truly get a rhythm despite engaging the Beermen in a nip-and-tuck game in the first period.
The Kings were only good for 6-of-25 triples, with Helterbrand failing to nail anything in five attempts, while San Miguel had 8-of-25 and made 24-of-45 two-point shots. San Miguel also made all but six of 32 free throws.
San Miguel slowed down somewhat after taking that 61-46 lead, as Ginebra came within a basket with a 13-0 run capped by an Eric Menk three-point play off Dorian Pena heading into the final 2:07 of the third.
But San Miguel retaliated with a 16-4 run in a span that bridged the third and fourth periods, taking a 77-63 lead. Ildefonso ended that spurt with six straight points as the Beermen put the game to bed.
