MANILA: San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen came up with the exact word on how to describe Arwind Santos.
“He’s something special,” Tanquingcen said after Santos Sunday night scored 33 points to lead San Miguel to a 104-89 pasting of Barako Bull for the Beermen’s sixth straight victory in the Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum.
Santos scored 17 points in the first half, a point more than his tournament average, before dropping nine in the fourth period when the Beermen put the Energy Boosters away to match the conference’s longest winning streak held by Alaska.
San Miguel rose to 6-2 with the win, while the loss was the fourth in six games for the Boosters, who trailed by 19 in the second quarter and came within two early in the third period only to lose steam when it mattered most.
“We came out well, but we kind of flat-lined in the middle (second period),” San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen told reporters. “Anybody can beat anybody in this league. “The most important thing is to respect your opponent, and we almost forgot about that in the first half.” “I think I have gotten to know my teammates better in the last two weeks,” said Santos, who came into last night’s game as one of only two players in the tournament, the other being Sta. Lucia’s Kelly Williams, with double-double averages.
Santos, who was acquired from Burger King in one of the biggest off-season deals, is averaging 11.1 rebounds a contest. He had eight against Barako Bull to go with six assists.
After opening up with defeats against Alaska and Barangay Ginebra, San Miguel matched the season’s longest winning streak, which the 6-1 Aces had. Alaska lost Friday night to Rain or Shine.
San Miguel had also beaten its last five opponents by an average margin of 15.8 points. Dondon Hontiveros added 21 points and Dennis Miranda had 17 coming off the bench, 10 of them in the final period. Barako Bull chopped down a 33-14 lead to four at the half, which would have been closer had Alex Crisano chose to pass the ball to a wide open Aris Dimaunahan on the break.
Crisano elected to dribble the length of the floor with Dimaunahan wildly asking for the ball. The 6-foot-7 center, whose attitude has always been suspect throughout his career, failed to beat the shotclock and was benched by coach Leo Isaac the entire second half.
In the second game, Purefoods sent the Elasto Painters crashing back down to Mother Earth with a 103-69 demolition job.
Rookie Rico Maierhofer had 15 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots in another sterling performance as the Tender Juicy Giants resumed their roller-coaster campaign by climbing to 4-3.
It was Rain or Shine’s seventh loss in eight games and it came just two nights after the Painters had dealt Alaska its first loss, such a letdown for a team which played with so much energy against the Aces but were practically limp against the Giants.
