MANILA, 29 January 2007 — Their battered bodies having recovered from two days’ rest, the San Miguel Beermen came out to give a whipping of their own — in more ways than one.
The Beermen played their physical best last night and hammered out a 109-82 victory over Red Bull to take a 2-1 PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series lead over the Barako, moments before coach Chot Reyes gave a complete indication of how rougher - and even bloody - the rest of their playoffs could become.
“We got intimidated by their (Barako’s) physical game (in Game 2),” Reyes, who lost, 84-102 on Friday also at the Araneta Coliseum, said. “I told my players that they better be ready to dish it and take it. Matira na lang ang matibay.”
The game was stopped a number of times because of physical play and confrontations among some of the players. San Miguel center Danny Ildefonso, who scored 16 points after going scoreless in the Game 2 loss, was thrown out after going nose-to-nose with Enrico Villanueva in midcourt with still 8:44 left.
Olsen Racela was clipped hard in the nose by Junthy Valenzuela after connecting on a triple and San Miguel already out of reach. The 6-foot guard had to be pacified by teammates and team staff for wanting to charge at the Red Bull swingman.
The Beermen scooted away from 59-all in the third period with the game’s decisive run - 14-2 - that gave San Miguel a 73-61 lead heading into the final 81 seconds of the third period.
And it proved to be all that San Miguel needed, as Danny Seigle kept the Barako at bay by finishing with 27 points, all but four of them in the first three quarters.
Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao later took the loss like a man, admitting that his squad was just thoroughly outplayed and offering no excuses other than the fact that the Barako played bad. “We just got out-rebounded in an overwhelming fashion,” Guiao said while still in the locker room. The Beermen hauled down a total of 75 boards against Red Bull’s 49, while converting on 27-of-35 free throw attempts.
“Those 27 points were an equivalent to an output of one quarter, and that’s too big to give up in a game like this.”
But Guiao still refused to play it coy.
“We’ve been in worse situations,” Guiao said, when asked about being 1-2 down. “This was a big game, but not as big as the next one (Game 4 on Wednesday).”
There were a total of six players in twin digits for the Beermen, with Rommel Adducul tossing in 12 and grabbing 12 rebounds, Dondon Hontiveros also chipping in 12, Racela 11 and Wesley Gonzales 10.
Talk ‘N Text, meanwhile, didn’t need to really come out with a different look, only the same winning strategy to pound out a 109-100 win over crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra. Before the tournament’s biggest crowd of 17,875, the Phone Pals assembled runs one after the other right in the first half, taking a commanding 17-point lead at one point before hanging tough in the face of a searing Ginebra comeback.
Ren-Ren Ritualo scored 22 points in the first half after nailing down 4-of-5 shots from three-point distance. He went on to finish with 29 points for his biggest offensive output in the series.
Five others players, counting Game 2 hero Mac Cardon’s 18 markers, chipped in twin-digit outputs for the Phone Pals.
After scoring in the 30s in each of both teams’ first four confrontations here, Mark Caguioa was held to 26 last night after going scoreless in the fourth period. The 6-foot-1 guard missed the chance of becoming the first local in more than three years to score 30 or more for three consecutive games.
Rudy Hatfield contributed 20 points and hauled down 19 rebounds, while Jay-Jay Helterbrand added 17 points and a career-high 18 assists. Asi Taulava stepped up when it was needed, scoring nine of his 11 in the fourth period to bail the Phone Pals out after the Kings had rallied to within four, 89-93, after a Hatfield layup with still 7:57 left.
