ANTIPOLO, 15 May 2006 — A triple whammy if there ever was one.
Purefoods suffered one such blow last night, losing to Red Bull, 92-75, but not after losing two key players in the rotation to injury, one so bad that the PBA Philippine Cup game was halted for close to 40 minutes for Eugene Tejada to be carried out on a spine board and in a neck brace.
Tejada figured in a terrifying fall with 5:43 left and the Chunkee Giants way behind, 54-73, complaining of losing sensation in the lower part of his body after hearing, he said, a loud crack in his back when he hit the ground.
A couple of hours before, Kerby Raymundo was also injured in the first quarter as the walking wounded in the Purefoods lineup just got bloated with Jondan Salvador out for the season because of an ACL tear and Noy Castillo still sidelined by a leg injury.
The rookie Tejada was actually re-activated for this game, which the Giants needed to win to gain outright entry into the semifinals to join idle sister team San Miguel.
Tejada was brought to the Makati Medical Center from the Ynares Center here for tests.
The 6-foot-4 rookie got tangled up in a huge pile-up after a rebound play, landing on his butt hard after being clipped by falling teammate Roger Yap and being fallen onto by Red Bull’s Mick Pennisi.
San Miguel improved to 11-3 with a 95-92 win over the Coca-Cola Tigers at the Picoy Ortega gym in La Union on Saturday night and the victory shoved the Beermen into the Final Four ahead of all others.
Dorian Pena scored 22 points and Danny Seigle added 21 to pace the Beermen, who made sure that the Tigers remained without a win in the second round of this classification phase. The loss meant that Purefoods stayed in second place at 10-4, and with so many key faces out, can lose the inside track on the second outright seat in the semis with the Bulls now breathing down the Giants’ collective necks.
Red Bull improved to 8-6 with its fifth straight victory and can pull level with the Giants by sweeping its final two games — against Coke and Barangay Ginebra — and hope that Purefoods drops its last two assignments.
Alaska, meanwhile, inched closer toward gaining an outright quarterfinal entry after holding off the rampaging Sta. Lucia Realtors in the endgame of a 98-91 decision in the first game. Willie Miller and Mike Cortez did the most damage on the Realtors, who got a big game from Marlou Aquino that went to waste.
The Aces climbed to fourth spot with an 8-7 card, while the Realtors, who almost successful erased a 20-point third quarter deficit, found no answer to their woes at 3-11.
That 79-59 lead was chopped down to as little as 91-88 late in the game, when Miller hit a wide-open jumper from the left corner and Cortez added a layup that settled the issue.
Nic Belasco supplied the energy in the offensive end for the Aces in the first quarter, shooting 12 of his team-high 20. Aquino, on the other hand, discovered some late-game energy and almost shoved the Realtors ahead. The 6-foot-9 slotman finished with 25 points, his highest offensive output in a year and two months.
