MANILA, 4 June 2008 — The MVP showed up for Purefoods last night, and the Tender Juicy Giants took the best team in the league to the distance before nipping them at the wire.
James Yap scored 17 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter, capping another brilliant night with a jumper off the glass in the final 8.1 seconds that lifted the Giants to a nail-biting 100-98 decision of Coca-Cola at the Araneta Coliseum.
Purefoods climbed to a level 6-6 card while knocking the Tigers out of the solo lead and down into a tie with idle Air21 and Red Bull at 8-5.
Yap engaged Coca-Cola gunslinger Mark Macapagal in a long-range shootout in the fourth period and the Purefoods swingman came out as the clear winner after Macapagal threw up an airball from three-point range as time elapsed.
It was Yap’s highest scoring game in the tournament, and it came on the heels of a dismal 12-point output against Alaska , which beat the Giants black-and-blue, 88-60, last week.
“We badly needed this win, both to remain alive and to get our confidence back,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio later. “After the 28-point loss, obviously with this win, against the best in the league, our hopes are alive.
Jason Dixon led the Tigers with 31 markers, 11 of them in the fourth period as he and Macapagal gave Coca-Cola several six-point spreads.
A fan, Romy Nunez, who has been a long-time fixture in games, especially during the years of the San Miguel dynasty, succumbed to a massive heart attack in the middle of the third quarter of the second game. Efforts to revive him proved futile, even after he was loaded into the league ambulance.
In the first game, Magnolia got the goods from its old stars in a 94-86 victory over Welcoat that kept the Beverage Masters in the running for an outright semifinal berth,
Racela, at 37 years old the second oldest player in the PBA behind Victor Pablo, scattered 13 of his personal season-high 20 points in the fourth quarter as Magnolia buried Welcoat.
Fellow old hand Danny Ildefonso and rookie Jonas Villanueva joined the fray, and there was no stopping Magnolia from posting a 90-80 lead that set them on their way to avenging a surprise 101-108 loss to the Dragons in the first round.
Magnolia rose to 7-6 with the win, while Welcoat dropped a fifth straight game and moved ever closer to missing the playoffs for the fourth straight tournament at 3-10.
“Olsen, he really came up and that speaks well of him,” coach Siot Tanquingcen said of his veteran guard. “But that’s the kind of character that the veterans in this team has. “It showed that my veterans can still play in this league and make a difference,” he added. With Danny Seigle and Dondon Hontiveros in civilian clothes because of injuries, Welcoat was in the mix in the first three quarters, or up until the time Racela waxed hot to give the Beverage Masters a 10-point lead with just over five minutes left, 85-75.
Things simply fell apart for Welcoat from there as Racela went on to finish with 20 points, his highest offensive output for the season.
Lordy Tugade wound up with 19 points and his two three-point shots inside the first eight minutes made him only the 13th player in league history to have at least 500 career triples. “It’s good for us to win even without Dondon and Danny S. It’s good for the team, especially for the confidence of some of the role players, the guys filling up their spots,” said Tanquingcen.
Jameel Watkins added 17 points and a game-high 19 rebounds, while Ildefonso finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, five of them defensive that put him just three shy of becoming only the 29th player in league history to have 2,000 such boards. Corey Santee had 21 points and Jay-R Reyes 18 points and nine rebounds for Welcoat. Tanquingcen said his team came into the game more focused defensively and that came to fore after 15 lead changes and 13 deadlocks.
