MANILA, 5 April 2008 — Though less than seven feet as advertised, Adam Parada continues to make things happen for Red Bull.
The former University of California at Irvine standout finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds and four shot blocks before hitting the bench in the final seven minutes of the fourth period last night, but not after making sure that an 89-83 win over Air21 was in the bag in the Fiesta Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum.
Red Bull won for the second straight night and assumed the solo lead with a 2-0 card, but this one didn’t come easy as Parada was made to ride the bench with his fifth personal entering the final five minutes.
“The 2-0 is a good start for the team,” Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao said. “We’re just getting comfortable with our import. He’s still feeling out the game and the good thing about our import is he’s not a heavy scorer and he doesn’t cancel out our local talents.”
Mike Hrabak came off the bench to contribute 12 points, all from the three-point territory (4-of-5). His three triples highlighted a 16-8 run in the third quarter that turned a 62-61 lead to 78-69.
Air21 was led by import Steven Thomas’ 31 points with 14 rebounds. Arwind Santos added 19 and 13 rebounds, while Ranidel de Ocampo had 11 and 10 boards.
Welcoat lost for the 13th straight time earlier — and in a truly ugly way at that.
The Dragons suffered got a sound beating from rock-solid Talk ‘N Text, 131-95, as Welcoat neared the all-time mark in futility with no promise looming on the horizon.
Talk ‘N Text zoomed to commanding leads early and never let up, its output now the season mark as the Phone Pals flaunted their true might under a new coach.
“It was a good win because we got our offense untracked,” said Chot Reyes, who is making a coaching comeback with a team considered to be an underachiever in the last tournament.
“We lost against Coca-Cola in our first game because we focused too much on our defense at the expense of our offense. I feel that priority No. 1 for this team is to improve on defense in order to compete with the big boys. “Hopefully we are now arriving at a happy balance.”
Happy balance it was for the Phone Pals, but not for the Dragons, who lost their last 11 games of the Philippine Cup and then their first two here. Welcoat hasn’t won since late November last year, when it humbled Magnolia.
Import Aaron McGhee scored 26 points and hauled down 10 rebounds, and Jay Washington chipped in with 24 as the Phone Pals broke away from a tied first period with a 15-point lead at the half.
So unchallenged were the Phone Pals that they hit the 100-point plateau as early as the 9:52 mark of the fourth quarter when they jumped to 100-82 lead.
The previous high was the 127 points of Purefoods in a double-overtime win over the Magnolia Beverage Masters last Sunday. The 36-point winning margin was the second biggest for the franchise, or since a 113-76 rout to Pop Cola in 2000 All-Filipino.
Playmaker Jimmy Alapag contributed 14 points, veteran forward Don Allado added 12, while center Yancy de Ocampo had 11 with nine rebounds.
For Welcoat, its latest defeat was the second worst in team history, or since a 119-79 bombardment absorbed at the hands of San Miguel Beer in the previous Fiesta Cup.
Sophomore bigman Jay-Arr Reyes led the Dragons with 21 points, while import Corey Santee added 19 and ookie guard Ryan Arana had 13.
The team’s other reinforcement, 6-foot-10 Jason Keep, struggled anew with only eight points. Keep’s replacement, Marquise Gainous, a 6-foot-9 power forward from Texas Christian University , will arrive tomorrow.
Welcoat veteran guard Joey Mente had a bad fall in the third quarter when he went for a lay-up against Mac Cardona.
The 32-year-old Mente, one of the league’s high-flyers at 5-foot-10, landed awkwardly. He continued to play for three minutes but felt pain at the back of his right thigh.
Mente was brought to the Mega Clinic in SM Mega Mall.
