MANILA, 5 May 2008 — Welcoat dropped back to earth with a resounding thud, and Sta. Lucia is on Cloud 9 again.
The Realtors snapped a two-game slide and dealt the Dragons a first loss in three games to get back near the top of the standings in the PBA Fiesta Cup eliminations after a workmanlike 111-97 thumping of Welcoat.
Sta. Lucia, the reigning Philippine Cup champion, buckled down to work early and never showed signs of slowing down, exploiting a hard-starting Welcoat crew to full effect to post commanding leads on the way to improving to 4-2.
The Dragons, who came into the game conquerors of two powerhouse teams, trailed by as many as 25 points and were never really in it, losing big yet again especially after their imports failed to chip in great help.
Corey Santee and Marquis Gainous combined to lay a big fat egg in the first quarter, and the Realtors promptly broke away to close out the period with a 14-point bubble before padding this to 55-30 late in the second.
It was all Sta. Lucia from there as the best the Dragons could do was come within nine points in the fourth courtesy of their hard-working local crew.
Welcoat dropped to 2-5.
“My players did their homework during the (All-Star) break,” said coach Boyet Fernandez, who guided the Realtors to their first all-Filipino championship before opening up this tournament with three straight victories only to lose two close games.
Wilson led the Realtors with 24 points and nine rebounds and the great work shown by the team early allowed Fernandez to literally play his last man in the win that came easy.
Jay-R Reyes had 23 points and eight rebounds to pace the Dragons, who got just 14 and 12 points from Gainous and Santee , respectively, in the loss which was just a tad prettier than their 36-point loss to Talk ‘N Text while being bannered by the lumbering Jason Keep.
The Realtors opened up the second period with seven unanswered points capped by a Joseph Yeo triple for 36-15. Sta. Lucia turned up the heat some more after that, with Wilson highlighting the next burst with a two-handed slam for that 25-point lead. Welcoat came into the game protecting just its second winning streak in franchise history after bringing down powerhouse sister teams Purefoods and Magnolia before the break. But the Dragons showed up far from the form that gave them those two wins, especially the imports.
The Dragons vaulted slightly into contention mainly through the efforts of Rob Wainwright and Reyes, with Wainwright hitting back-to-back treys that cut that deficit to 54-67, and Reyes scoring on a followup which made it 62-71. Rookie Ryan Reyes then spearheaded another 7-0 spurt, and this was one was telling, as the Realtors zoomed back to a 81-64 with under three minutes left in the quarter. Talk ’N Text took a piece of the lead after a 98-96 decision of Alaska in the second game, where Mac Cardona scored all but eight of his 31 points in the final two periods.
The Phone Pals climbed to 5-2 and caught up with idle Red Bull and Coca-Cola, while Alaska, the defending champion here, dropped a third game in a row and are remained tied with Welcoat.
Red Bull dropped out of the solo lead after taking a 102-95 loss at the hands of Magnolia in an out-of-town game in Lipa City Saturday night, where Lordy Tugade led the Beverage Masters with 22 points.
Aaron McGhee, playing with a bad ankle, finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds, while Willie Miller, the reigning MVP, scored 22 points for Alaska but was scoreless in the final period.
Randy Holcomb, who came out of suspension and who was rumored to be on the way out, returned to action and contributed 17 and just nine rebounds for the Aces, who are having a severely dry run at this point.
