MANILA, 30 March 2004 — Comebacking Danny Seigle led a decisive San Miguel surge in a stretch the temperamental Art Long sat out because of foul trouble, leading the Beermen to a 94-84 victory over the Sta. Lucia Realtors in the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.
Slowly getting back into groove after sitting out a season due to injuries, the 6-5 Seigle showed flashes of his old, fiery form during a 17-5 exchange that ripped the game open and had the Beermen on their way to their seventh straight victory.
“When Art went out, I wanted to be more aggressive offensively and I think that’s what the whole team did. We pushed the ball a little, we were able to run and hit a few easy lay-ups,” said Seigle.
By the time Long returned to the floor with barely four minutes to go, the Beermen already had the game in control, 88-78.
Seigle scored 13 points and grabbed eight boards in 29 minutes off the bench to pick up the cudgels from Long, who was saddled with five fouls — most of which he predictably contested — and was in and out of the bench in the fourth quarter.
The hulking import also figured in a verbal tussle with some Sta. Lucia players as the two teams queued at the exits heading to the locker rooms at halftime.
“Art was frustrated because of some of the calls,” said SMB coach Jong Uichico of Long afterward.
Seigle agreed.
“(Long’s) been given hard fouls. Teams resort to that because he is hard to stop,” said Seigle.
But in the times Long was on the court, he was dominant as usual. The NBA veteran had 23 points and grabbed 20 rebounds apart from issuing five feeds, making three steals and blocking three shots in a bruising 37-minute stint.
San Miguel is the only unbeaten team in the league’s transition tournament, but Uichico was quick to warn his players that “we have not yet achieved anything at this point.”
“I just hope complacency doesn’t set in. It’s still a long way to go. Sometimes we have been playing as if we have already done things,” he said.
Dennis Espino’s charity split with 71 seconds remaining pushed the Realtors to 84-90, but Dorian Pena made two free throws off a Ronald Cuan foul to keep Sta. Lucia at bay.
Adding to Sta. Lucia’s woes was the absence of Derrick Brown in the last five minutes after the New York-born hotshot was sent crashing to the floor by a Nic Belasco knee
In the second game, Shell took a 102-98 win over Ginebra in Leo Austria’s debut as head coach but paid a dear price as top guns Ronald Tubid and Chris Calaguio both suffered injuries late in the highly physical contest.
The Turbo Chargers’ second win in a row allowed them to match the 3-5 (win-loss) card of the Kings, who lost their fourth straight match — two under new coach Siot Tanquingcen.
Tubid helped Shell erect a 55-42 lead at halftime and the Turbo Chargers held off Ginebra the rest of the way.
The Kings were within nine points at the start of the fourth, but Tubid knocked in a triple, nearly completed a four-point play and added two more points to give the Turbo Chargers an 88-74 lead with 8:28 remaining.
Tubid left the game after falling down hard on the floor on a jumper try late in the final period.
“I hope he’s okay. We really need him in our next game,” said Austria.
Rich Alvarez started for Shell in the game and finished with eight points and nine rebounds in his second meeting with the Kings. It was against Ginebra that Alvarez earned the distinction of being the first No. 1 pick overall to get benched in his debut game. “I’m really thankful to coach for putting confidence in me. I’m just a rookie and it’s hard to get a coach’s confidence so I’m really thankful that he gave me minutes today,” said Alvarez, who logged 23 minutes under Austria.
