MANILA, 27 April 2006 — Simply put, Barangay Ginebra found Purefoods too hot to handle last night.
Walking wounded to begin with, the Gin Kings slumped to a third straight loss in the PBA Philippine Cup as three Chunkee Giants churned out career games that resulted in a 90-82 win and kept Purefoods solidly in second spot in the standings.
James Yap scattered 37 points, Marc Pingris reset his personal-best in rebounds with 17 boards and Roger Yap was not far behind after dishing out 13 assists in Purefoods’ third straight win for 8-3 overall.
Rommel Adducul became the third key Ginebra player to be sidelined after Rodney Santos and Andy Seigle. All three will be out for the rest of the season because of injuries, with Adducul to go under the knife in the next few days to repair an abnormal bone growth in the sole of his right foot.
And all those things compounded resulted in the Kings going down for the third consecutive time in a 4-6 card as the league takes a break for All-Star Week starting today in Misamis Oriental. Noy Castillo strained a right calf muscle, Eugene Tejada stepped out early in the first period because of a twisted ankle and Paul Artadi did not see any minutes because of back spasm. Ginebra was held to a single field goal — a three-pointer by Jay-Jay Helterbrand — for the first 9:47 of the fourth period, and the Gin Kings fell behind by as many as 16 points in that stretch with James Yap leading the demolition job.
James Yap shattered his previous best of 34 points with 3:13 left, hitting a three-pointer for his 35th marker which gave the Giants that 86-70 lead that broke the Kings’ collective backs.
Mark Caguioa led Ginebra with 25 points and Helterbrand chipped in with 23. And the biggest letdown of the game was Eric Menk, who was good for only five points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes.
