MANILA, 16 March 2004 — Art Long, keeping his notorious temper in check while dealing with Red Bull’s highly physical defense, dominated on both ends of the floor in leading the San Miguel Beermen to their fourth straight win, 86-77, on Sunday night in the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Conference.
Logging 45 minutes, the 6-8 Long banged in a team-high 27 points and grabbed 30 rebounds, falling three points short of the first 30-30 game since Julius Nwosu (37-31) put one on stats sheets for Purefoods in a 2000 Commissioner’s Cup game against Mobiline.
The Beermen played just eight men and were without Danny Seigle, who sprained his right ankle in a previous win over Talk N’ Text and was rested by San Miguel coach Jong Uichico.
It turned out Long was more than Red Bull could handle.
Long threw his weight around from the opening minute as the Beermen opened an 18-7 edge after one quarter — a lead that grew to 42-29 at halftime and to 65-51 at the end of the third quarter.
The only time the Barako showed signs of life was when they got within 70-78 with 2:33 remaining, but back-to-back treys by Olsen Racela and Dondon Hontiveros quickly ended the threat.
In the second game, Mark Sanford had a conference-best 41 points to lead Coca-Cola to a 92-84 victory over Ginebra, much to the disappointment of the predominantly pro-Kings crowd.
A total of 10,500 people came to watch the game at the Big Dome.
Sanford had 13 points in the third period when Coca-Cola took control of the match, turning a three-point halftime deficit to a 70-58 lead late in that quarter.
The win raised the Tigers’ win-loss card to 3-1 while the Kings’ ledger dropped to 3-2.
The Kings came within 76-78 on an Andy Seigle putback midway through the final quarter but caved in when the Tigers dropped an 8-2 salvo that had Sanford at the firing end.
