MANILA, 11 March 2006 — From whipping boys to ripping boys.
Coca-Cola, on a night when Ali Peek must have felt the rim to be as big as the Araneta Coliseum itself, zoomed to the solo lead in the PBA Philippine Cup after claiming a second straight foe in the same easy fashion.
The Tigers, casualties in the last two conferences, were just too much for the Alaska Aces to handle, winning 81-69 after Peek hit all of his 12 shots from the field and established a new league mark in single game marksmanship.
The final score did not reflect how much in control the Tigers were as Peek led the team to a hot first half that allowed Coca-Cola to take a 47-22 lead into the third quarter.
It was the second straight win for Coke, which devastated Air21 by 21 points in the first game of the tournament last Sunday, a great start to a tournament which coach Binky Favis hopes would be different from the last two.
“We haven’t achieved anything yet,” Favis said when asked of the significance of the two early victories. “But it’s something which we can build on, again.” San Miguel, despite a season-high 33 turnovers, held debuting Red Bull scoreless in the final 3:25 later in the night, escaping with a 101-93 victory to climb into a tie with the Aces.
The Beermen blew two 17-point leads in the first half and were clearly on the receiving end of a barrage of baskets midway in the final canto that had the Bulls looking formidable.
Kiko Adriano, a third-string off-guard, did wonders off the bench for the Beermen, who got six players scoring 12 points or more excluding starting small forward Dondon Hontiveros, who was good for only two.
“We were lucky to win with those 33 turnovers,” coach Jong Uichico said. “Any team that commits 33 turnovers has a very slim chance of winning. “ Danny Seigle led the Beermen with 24 points and Danny Ildefonso scattered 19.
Lordy Tugade was the high-point man for the Bulls, the Fiesta Conference champs who showed no signs of championship hangover and were in business the whole game despite trailing early.
But then again, it was a night for Peek.
The 6-foot-4 banger eclipsed the previous high of 11 straight baskets he himself made in the 2001 Commissioner’s Cup when Alaska, his former team, bowed to San Miguel, 79-71.
Only the great Alvin Patrimonio of Purefoods and Frankie Lim, also then with Alaska, have made more consecutive shots in a game than Peek in the history of this league.
Patrimonio and Lim both hit 13 consecutive two-point baskets in two instances in 1991, but none of them finished the game with a perfect clip like Peek.
“He’s our best field-goal shooter and among the best in the league,” Favis said of his man-mountain of a forward. “It doesn’t take a genius to realize that we have to put the ball in his hands.” This start of the Tigers only served notice of how well the team has prepared in the short off-season as Favis is getting a lot from his crew offensively.
The entire team has been responding on the defensive end as well, as Coke held the Aces to just eight points in the second period to break the game wide open and post the emphatic win.
William Antonio got the call to start and tossed in 15 points, with one of his three triples for the night giving the Tigers a 29-point bubble, 55-26 early in the third period.
That lead was just impossible for the Aces to overhaul the way Alaska shot the ball.
The Aces were good for just 34.2% of their field goal attempts. At one point in the second period, when the score was 35-17, Peek was just two points shy of the entire Alaska total.
