MANILA, 27 November 2004 — Although still playing hurt, Kenneth Duremdes slid into his role as Sta. Lucia Realty’s leader on Thursday, powering the Realtors to a 98-92 repeat win over Coca-Cola in the Gran Matador-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Duremdes shot 8-of-15 from the floor en route to 24 points and also had six assists in 39 minutes of action. More importantly, his comeback after three games due to injury seems to have revitalized the rest of the Realtors.
This showed in the way the Realtors rallied back from an early 14-point deficit, pulled away for good in the fourth quarter and displayed enough poise in the endgame that repelled a last-ditch Tigers comeback.
“Kenneth is still only about 80 percent (fit). But he asked me to let him play even for a few minutes, and I agreed,” said Sta. Lucia coach Alfrancis Chua.
Dennis Espino had 15 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, Marlou Aquino wound up with 18 points and seven boards while Gerard Francisco 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Realtors, who snapped out of a two-game slide and improved to 3-8.
Coca-Cola failed to avenge its 69-86 loss to Sta. Lucia the first time they met, dropped its second straight game and is now sporting a 5-7 slate in a tie for sixth with idle Alaska.
Espino had 10 points during a 12-4 run opening up the fourth period, staking Sta. Lucia to its biggest lead at 86-75.
But Coca-Cola was far from done, moving within 89-93 and even had the chance to further whittle the deficit on a turnover by Sta. Lucia inside the final 30 seconds.
Then Espino had a key interception and made five charities in the final 22.5 seconds that kept the Tigers at bay.
In the second game, Talk N’Text, as many expected, scored a repeat win over Purefoods. What was not expected was the manner by which the Phone Pals beat the Hotdogs a second time around.
The Phone Pals needed to work extra hard in the second half to make up for an atrocious first-half in pulling off a gripping 94-86 win over the Hotdogs in the Gran Matador PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
It was something different for a team which has been on a romp, winning nine of its first 10 games by an average margin of 12 points. The Phone Pals had to dish out an impeccable game in the second half to overcome a woeful first half where they shot only 32 percent from the field and fell behind by as many as 21 points.
