MANILA, 18 May 2006 — Talk ‘N Text should be winning games.
Purefoods, on the other hand, should be losing them — by the handful.
Instead, a severely-depleted Purefoods squad scraped its way past the souped up Phone Pals, 72-69 last night, by rallying behind a fallen teammate and bringing down the PBA Philippine Cup’s strongest team on paper.
In winning for the 11th time in 15 games, the Chunkee Giants assured themselves of playing in the Final Four, while the Phone Pals, who remained winless since that blockbuster trade that got them two marquee players, dropped to 5-9.
“Nobody thought we could win this game but us,” said a teary-eyed Ryan Gregorio, the Purefoods coach. “We were inspired by one person, and that was Eugene (Tejada).” Tejada suffered a fractured spinal cord in a freakish pile-up last Sunday. The injury was so severe that he lost sensation in his lower body and is having a hard time moving.
The 6-foot-4 Fil-American rookie is scheduled to go under the knife today and the entire Purefoods team, not to mention the whole country, is rooting for a successful procedure.
In a related development, the parents of Tejada arrived last night from San Francisco, California to be by the bedside of their son during the delicate operation where only the best doctors will perform at the Makati Medical Center. Tejada’s injury is the worst on-court disaster ever in the rich history of the professional cage league, even more horrid than the freak accident suffered by former Ginebra San Miguel forward Terry Saldaña.
Purefoods, its entire team wearing a stitched-up number 33 — Tejada’s number — on its jersey, joined idle San Miguel in the semifinals ahead of everyone else and gained the time to recover from injuries to its key men.
The Giants were already without Jun Limpot, Noy Castillo and Kerby Raymundo. Yet they fought with all their resolve and determination to post a win that will be remembered for a long time.
James Yap scored 24 points and the Giants played smart all game to hold off the Phone Pals, who have actually lost their fifth straight game, their longest since 2001 when they had a much inferior lineup.
Asi Taulava’s 14 points already led the Phone Pals, who are now in danger of being relegated into an extra round of elimination in order to get into the first phase of the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola finally won a game in the second round of this classification phase, 99-88, over Barangay Ginebra, to enhance its chances of making the quarterfinals outright.
Johnny Abarrientos scored six of his 11 points in the final two minutes to help end the Tigers five-game skid and get back to .500 with a 7-7 card.
The Gin Kings, another squad reeling from losses of key men to various injuries, dropped to 6-7 despite getting 33 points from starting point guard Jay-Jay Helterbrand.
Coke started out the tournament hot, winning its first four game before going on to top the eliminations with a 6-2 card. But things have not gone their way since the All-Star break.
John Arigo paced the Tigers with 21 points, Rafi Reavis and Ali Peek each scattered 14 points and Miranda was the fifth man in twin digits for Favis with 11.
