MANILA, 11 June 2007 — Galen Young provided another endgame performance for the books and took San Miguel to a place the Beermen didn’t seem capable of reaching at the start of the PBA Fiesta Cup.
Young scored five points in the final 13.3 seconds last night that lifted San Miguel to a 102-101 victory over Coca-Cola and into the playoffs of the import-spiced tournament, just two months after the Beermen started out 0-7 and looked like goners.
His orange-dyed tomahawk haircut giving him a mean look, Young slit the Tigers’ collective throats by completing a three-point play in the final 2.7 seconds which erased a four-point deficit in the last 13.3 and put San Miguel in the quarterfinals.
It was a victory that looked impossible in the stretch for the Beermen, especially after Coca-Cola import Rashad Bell split his charities for a 101-97 lead.
But everything fell in place for San Miguel, as Young nailed two freebies off Ali Peek in the next play after the Beermen ate up just 2.6 seconds off the clock.
John Arigo, who was lethal in the first half for the Tigers, was then trapped in the sideline in the inbound play by a San Miguel double team of Young and Dorian Pena.
And this forced the prolific Coca-Cola forward to a travelling violation after he lost his footing, giving San Miguel the crack at the win, which coach Siot Tanquingcen effectively devised, heading into the final 9.7 seconds.
“It crossed my mind that we would lose,” Tanquingcen later said. “I was trying to figure out how to get four points in 13 seconds. “The ploy was to milk the clock as slow as we can,” added the soft-spoken coach, who took over when the Beermen were just 0-3, lost the next four and then rattled off eight straight wins to even threaten to make the semifinals outright.
“I guess it worked.”
The game was a classic in every sense, and too bad one team would have to see an end to its season.
Young, who struggled from the floor by hitting just 6-of-17 tries, had a 12-for-17 clip from the free throw line, which ultimately spelled the difference why the Beermen advanced to face sister team Barangay Ginebra in the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals will be a best-of-three affair, the other pairing pitting Air21 and Talk ‘N Text starting Wednesday also at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Whoever wins in the Ginebra-San Miguel series will go on to play Alaska, while the survivor of the Air21-TNT matchup advances to face defending champion Red Bull in best-of-five semifinal series.
San Miguel’s victory last night relived memories of the classic come-from-behind victory by the Utex Wranglers over the Toyota Tamaraws in Game 5 of the 1980 Open Conference Finals.
There, Utex forged overtime despite trailing by four in the final 16 seconds behind NBA veteran Glenn McDonald. The Wranglers eventually won in extension, 99-98, over Andy Fields and the Tamaraws.
But that single greatest comeback feat has now been obviously overshadowed by this batch of Beermen, who not only erased a four-point deficit with lesser time remaining, but won it all in regulation.
