MANILA, 18 March 2006 — Healthy, focused and determined, San Miguel is the exact opposite of what sister team Barangay Ginebra was — at least for last night.
The Beermen, their nucleus back in top, fearsome form, annihilated the Gin Kings with an unforgiving effort on both ends all night, pounding out a 77-59 victory for a piece of second place in the PBA Philippine Cup.
San Miguel held the Kings to only seven first quarter points and to only three markers in the last four minutes to post the win, its second in three games which gave the Beermen a tie for second with their victims.
Idle Coca-Cola, one of four San Miguel Corp.
teams in the league, thus remained the only undefeated team in the tournament.
Ginebra played Eric Menk for extended minutes, but it was clear that the entire team was outplayed the entire night as Ginebra was limited to the lowest output by any team for the season, the previous low of 62 shared by the Tigers and Alaska during the Fiesta Conference.
It was actually a low-scoring contest, and only a couple of bursts in the stretch gave the Beermen their total.
Still, it was a victory that gave coach Jong Uichico a lot of hope for the tournament, with Danny Seigle again deadly and point guard Brandon Cablay not turning out to be a bad take in a trade that sent Nic Belasco to Alaska in the off-season.
“Danny Seigle is again in good shape.
Brandon Cablay is back. That’s why mataas na naman ang intensity naming,” Uichico said.
“Everyone is playing hard, showing great dedication and focus in the game.” Menk, the Ginebra cornerstone still nursing a severely injured ankle, was good for only four points and the Kings found life difficult with the San Miguel frontline playing true to form.
Ginebra is also missing the services of 6-foot-10 Andy Seigle because of injury.
Meanwhile, Bitoy Omolon came up with a steal with 3.3 seconds left and fed Chester Tolomia for the winning basket earlier as Sta.
Lucia won for the first time, 102-100 over Air21 in the first game.
The Realtors finally held it together for a full 48 minutes and the win spoiled an effort no team has ever done before in the rich history of the league.
Air21 got four players — De Ocampo brothers Yancy and Ranidel and Nino Canaleta and Mark Telan — to finish in double-double figures in rebounds and points. But the crucial end-game blunder cost the Express the chance to go into the record books in style.
“We’re still trying to improve our game with a new system,” coach Alfrancis Chua said. “Actually, we’re not really trying to win, we’re just trying to improve using this system.
“Bonus na lang kung mananalo kami.” Kenneth Duremdes led all shooters for the night with 30 points, although the former MVP was not able to play in the closing minutes after a freak play caused a slight leg injury that will still be evaluated by team physicians.
Canaleta led the Express with a career-high 19 points and 10 rebounds, Yancy finished with 14 points and 10 boards, Ranidel 10 and 10 and Telan 12 points and 11 rebounds.
It was the most number of double-double outputs for a team since the league kept track of “D-D” records more than three years ago.
The Express were actually playing for the last shot when Omolon picked a pass by Patrick Fran to Ren-Ren Ritualo, which the high-leaping Sta. Lucia forward turned into the play of the game by feeding a streaking Tolomia for the winner.
