MANILA: The monkey is off the back of Purefoods, and it came at a time when the Tender Juicy Giants — as most everyone felt - were not equipped to do it.
Purefoods won back-to-back games for the first time in the PBA Philippine Cup Wednesday night after posting an 88-79 victory over Coca-Cola at the Araneta Coliseum which the Giants pulled out even with Kerby Raymundo sidelined because of a knee injury.
“We really prepared hard to break the trend,” coach Ryan Gregorio told reporters. “And it really came at the right time because we were celebrating something today.”
Most of the company’s bigwigs were at courtside, cheering on the Giants, with Purefoods celebrating its 10th year of partnership with the international Hormel Corporation.
And for a while, it looked like all of them would go home disappointed as the game Tigers, undermanned themselves with Asi Taulava continuing to sit it out because of a severe ankle sprain, took control late in the third quarter.
Coca-Cola actually led until midway in the fourth and Purefoods needed a big finishing kick courtesy of Peter June Simon and James Yap to pull this game out of the fire.
Simon scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth periods, including a string of nine straight built around consecutive triples, that broke the game’s last tie at 70 and sent Purefoods on its way to a 6-4 card, good for a fourth place tie at the moment.
“We’re now well within the leaders,” Gregorio added. “Every victory counts. This is definitely sweet, but a lot of things are left to be done, still.”
Coca-Cola tumbled to its sixth straight loss, matching the mark in futility jointly held by Rain or Shine and Barako Bull. The Tigers failed to duplicate their first round triumph over the Giants and fell to 1-9 overall.
Yap tossed in 17 of his 22 markers in the second half, including nine in the fourth period even as Roger Yap and Don Allado finished with 11 points each for the Giants in great supporting efforts.
Larry Rodriguez tied his career high with 21 points for the Tigers, who played under new coach Bo Perasol for the second game and still did not see their fortunes change.
Perasol, the former Air21 coach who guided the Express to a second place finish here two years ago, took over Kenneth Duremdes, who was elevated to alternate member of the board last week.
From 70-all, Simon hit two straight triples and three straight free throws that had the Giants racing to a 79-70 lead.
Yap, who won the MVP two years ago, then put the game to bed for the Giants with a triple at the 3:34 mark as Purefoods took an 83-71 lead that the Tigers never came close to threatening the rest of the way.
Actually, it wasn’t only Purefoods which assembled a winning streak for the first time. The Elasto Painters also did the same in the first game after a 95-93 victory over Talk ‘N Text.
Ryan Arana scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth period, almost singlehandedly winning the game for the Painters, whose steady rise out of the cellar in the past two weeks has given them a legitimate chance of making the playoffs outright.
“This is a big win for us,” said Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia, who kidded Arana inside the press room where both sat after the game. “He’s been a big-time player ever since college. That’s what we lack, a go-to-guy.
“Good thing he delivered (offensively) because he doesn’t know how to play defense.”
Rain or Shine played tough-as-nail defense on the top guns of the defending champion Tropang Texters, holding leading league scorer Mac Cardona to just a free throw in the second half and zero points in the fourth quarter.
Cardona, who won the Best Player of the Conference award here last year, finished with just 12 points. Jimmy Alapag, the Texters’ starting point guard, had just 13 points.
