MANILA, 10 May 2007 — This one was a delivery Air21 almost did not complete.
The Express went scoreless in the final 3:28 last night but still went on to pound out an 86-85 victory over Coca-Cola after executing a trapping defense in the final seven seconds to the letter at the Araneta Coliseum.
Rookie Arwind Santos forced a jump ball on John Arigo in the final 1.2 seconds to preserve the win as the Express almost lost a nine-point lead late in the fourth period before keeping a piece of second place in the Fiesta Cup eliminations.
“We need wins like this,” said Air21 coach Bo Perasol after the win that boosted their chances of advancing to the semifinals outright. “This will help build our character going into our last five games (of the eliminations).”
While Air21 needed to go through the proverbial eye of the needle, Red Bull found it easy sailing later in the night, ripping the Sta. Lucia Realtors early to cruise to a 106-90 victory to also improve to 9-4.
With a bad back and all, Enrico Villanueva still topscored for Red Bull with 17 markers, hitting seven in the breakaway second period where the Bulls broke the game wide open with a 23-point lead going into the second half.
“Our mindset coming into this game was just to get off the slump,” interim coach Gee Abanilla said after snapping a two-game slide. “We focused on all the things that made us successful in the first half (of the tournament).”
James Penny, also playing with a sore back, added 12 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks, while Carlo Sharma finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and a career-high six assists for Abanilla.
Jamaal Williams led the Realtors with 42 points and 18 rebounds, but Sta. Lucia still fell after its locals failed to provide the needed backup with rookie Kelly Williams also struggling to finish with only 13.
So dominant were the Bulls that they led by as many as 28 points at one point, 64-36, with still 8:22 to play in the third period after a Topex Robinson layup.
And that was all that she wrote for the Realtors, who came closest at 10 points late in the fourth but couldn’t put a clear dent on the control that Red Bull was playing with.
The win assured Air21 that it will qualify in the quarterfinals at the least, and not go through the wildcard phase the team had languished in in the past three conferences.
“We have been in the wildcard phase for the last three conferences, so we know how difficult it is to get out of there,” Perasol said. “So we’re looking at the big picture and going for all the marbles, which is the semifinals (outright).”
Gary David, in the center of trade talks, came off the bench to score 20 points while Shawn Daniels only had 13 points but came away with 18 rebounds and six assists. Nino Canaleta and Aries Dimaunahan finished in double digits for Perasol after shooting 13 and 10, respectively.
But it was the way the Express held their poise after almost blowing a 61-47 third quarter lead and going scoreless in the endgame that made Perasol proud.
Consecutive triples by John Arigo and Leo Avenido pushed Coca-Cola within 85-86, heading into the final 30 seconds.
The Tigers got the ball back when David threw up a triple under heavy pressure and Varem collaring the rebound with seven seconds left.
But Santos came up with the defensive play of the game as the Express won the tap with Wynne Arboleda running out the clock.
Jeff Varem led all scorers with 24 points and as many rebounds, eight of those points and 10 of his caroms coming in the first quarter that enabled Coca-Cola to race to an early 11-2 lead.
Arigo had 23 points and Ali Peek a double-double of 16 and 10 but the Tigers still dropped to a 5-8 slate and solo seventh.
