MANILA, 19 October 2004 — Rob Wainwright got loose for a mighty fourth quarter explosion to power Coca-Cola past San Miguel Beer 92-84 Sunday in the Gran Matador-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
An 18-4 blast to open the fourth did it for the Tigers, who blew a 10-point lead and trailed by nine before unloading that decisive run.
Wainwright scattered 10 points in the period, including eight in a pivotal run, as the Tigers came back from a 71-75 deficit to lead for good 82-75, five minutes left in the game.
Johnny Abarrientos also had a superb overall performance with 13 points and 11 asists while Jeffrey Cariaso paced all Coca-Cola scorers with 20 as the team notched its third win in four games and moved into solo second behind league leaders Talk N’ Text (3-0).
The Beermen dropped to a 2-2 record.
The Tigers encountered significant distraction on the eve of the match following reports that the Department of Justice has included power forward Rudy Hatfield among the list of six players who allegedly falsified their citizenship.
The DOJ reportedly making its announcement yesterday and if the reports were true, Hatfield could face deportation.
“It was a distraction,” admitted Coca-Cola coach Chot Reyes in the post-game interview. “But we have no control over whatever is going to happen.
“I told the boys the only thing we could control is how we come out to play this game.” Despite being bothered by the Fil-Sham issue, Hatfield still managed to put in big numbers of 13 points and 10 rebounds.
“I’ve proven myself before that I am a Filipino,” said Hatfield.
The Tigers appeared to have the game well under control after outscoring the Beermen 24-16, in the second quarter and posting the game’s biggest margin of 49-39 early in the third. They were still up by nine when Nic Belasco, Olsen Racela and Dondon Hontiveros hit five successive threes between them and the Beermen went on to close the third with a 23-8 run for a 68-62 lead after three quarters.
Belasco, who led all scorers with 22 points, nailed his fourth three of the night, giving San Miguel a 71-62 lead at the start of the fourth.
But the Tigers, who ran their motion offense with precision and complemented with good ball movement, quickly responded with that decisive run from which the Beermen never recovered.
Danny Ildefonso scored 15 points and equaled Belasco’s haul of 11 rebounds while Dorian Pena added 13 and 10 boards for the Beermen, who picked up their second loss in four games.
SMB shot better that the Coca-Cola but committed 25 turnovers, 12 more than Tigers, who netted 21 points on those miscues.
Coca-Cola’s emotional triumph overshadowed FedEx’s 98-90 romp of an out-of-sync Alaska in the day’s other game.
The win moved the Express in a tie for third place with Purefoods and Shell with a 2-1 record behind league-leader Talk N’ Text and Coca-Cola. San Miguel Beer dropped to 1-2 while the Aces joined Sta. Lucia at the bottom of the team standings with third loss in as many games.
Meanwhile, the war on eliminating the PBA from foreigners with forged documents regarding their Filipino lineage is far from over, according to Jojo Lastimosa.
Lastimosa, one of the league’s 25 greatest players who retired last year, said that the deportation order by the Department of Justice (DoJ) has bore fruit to the local players’ hard work and dubbed it as a ‘mild victory.’
“There are still things to be done because we still have to push through with investigation against some of them,” Lastimosa said.
“But credit should be given to those players who worked hard to make this investigation possible, especially those who trooped to the Senate and the DOJ,” he added.
DoJ Secretary Raul Gonzales confirmed in a television interview that the documents of Asi Tualava of Talk N’ Text, Davonn Harp, Mick Pennisi and Jon Ordonio of Red Bull, Alex Crisano of Barangay Ginebra and Rudy Hatfield of Coca-Cola were not authenticated and were in fact manufactured and falsified.
Only two of the eight Fil-Ams — Andy Seigle of Barangay Ginebra and Dorian Pe?a of San Miguel Beer passed the DoJ scrutiny.
Gonzales also requested for the lifting of the injunction order on the case of Taulava.
