MANILA, 20 April 2006 — Leading the PBA Philippine Cup before a long break last week, Jong Uichico’s worst fear was that his San Miguel Beermen might come to their next game not ready to play.
It came as a mild surprise to the mild-mannered mentor that his team was still in attacking, killing mode.
“I had this fear of the team being rusty and complacent after a three-day break,” Uichico said, moments after San Miguel tore Air21 to shreds, 117-100 last night, to stay on top of the classification phase at the Araneta Coliseum.
Danny Seigle scattered 23 points and Danny Ildefonso inflicted damage on the Express on both ends to lead the Beermen to their sixth straight win - the longest in the season - and their eighth in 10 games overall.
The Beermen methodically broke loose from a tight first quarter with Seigle and Ildefonso each scoring nine points in the third which made a great part of the fourth quarter a virtual round robin with the Express out of it.
Dorian Pena was the third Beermen to finish with more than 20 points, shooting five of his 22 also in the third period as San Miguel gained a stranglehold on the game and eventually slapped a sixth straight loss on Air21.
The Express are now at 3-7 overall with only the idle Sta. Lucia Realtors having a worse record at 2-6. Dondon Hontiveros added another 16 points for Uichico and Brandon Cablay shot 14, the first time that he finished in double figures since being traded by Alaska for big man Nic Belasco.
Wynne Arboleda led the Express with 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, while Ren-Ren Ritualo chipped in with 17 and Nino Canaleta, the reigning slam dunk champ, added 15 like Ronald Tubid and Ranidel de Ocampo.
Purefoods regained second place all to itself later in the night, holding off a hard-charging Coca-Cola side, 79-75.
James Yap hit three of four free throws inside the final 26.6 seconds and Mark Pingris capped a splendid offensive night with the defensive gem of the game as the Chunkee Giants pulled this one out to improve to 7-3.
The Tigers dropped to solo third with the loss, their fourth also in 10 outings, but not after giving the Giants a scare by almost erasing a 12-point deficit with less than two minutes left in the clock. Coke dug itself a hole by failing to buy a bucket until the 7:15 mark of the fourth quarter, trailing by 14 twice before going into the waning minutes staring at a 12-point deficit. That long scoring drought followed a brilliant third quarter by the Giants, who got eight points from Roger Yap in the third period.
