MANILA: Magnolia, for all its superstar players, stayed alive in the hunt for an automatic semifinal seat in the Fiesta Cup by using its defense for a change.
The Beverage Masters held Coca-Cola scoreless in the final 75 seconds last night to hammer out an 81-77 decision of the Tigers and keep themselves in the running for an outright seat in the Final Four at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Marc Pingris and Lordy Tugade scored two free throws each to seal the Magnolia victory for a 9-7 card that is now good for a share of third place with the Tigers.
“This is a good win, no doubt about it,” said Magnolia coach Siot Tanquingcen. “But we still haven’t achieved anything.
“As expected, defense was the key in this game,” he added. “We choked them defensively, and that says a lot about this team finally getting it together at the most crucial times.” Tugade scored six of Magnolia’s final seven points, highlighting his offensive brilliance with a tip-in off a Danny Ildefonso miss that shoved the Beverage Masters to a 78-76 lead they would never relinquish.
Jason Dixon, who was denied his sweet spot underneath all night by Amal McCaskill, hit a free throw with 1:15 remaining for 78-77. But the Tigers would never score the rest of the way as errors, the last an Asi Taulava passing miscue, denied Coca-Cola the chance for a decent shot.
Dixon was held to just 15 points even as Tugade’s 14 were enough to lead the Beverage Masters offensively.
Earlier, James Yap passed up on a shot he was supposed to take as Purefoods fell to Talk ‘N Text, 102-101 that kept the Phone Pals in the running for an outright semifinal seat. Ren-Ren Ritualo dropped an off-balanced 18-foot jumper with 6.4 seconds left and the Tender Juicy Giants drew up a play for the 6-foot-2 Yap to bail them out with another last-second brilliance that keyed two previous wins. But Yap, who got slightly open from three-point distance, elected to drive. And when the defense clamped down on his so hard inside, passed out to Roger Yap whose short jumper was blocked by Yancy De Ocampo. In the end, it was defense that pulled us through tonight.” James Yap gave the Giants a 101-100 lead with a pretty one-handed jumper that put back a Kerby Raymundo miss with 24.7 seconds to go.
And Reyes knew that it would be James who would have the ball, as the Talk ‘N Text coach put on the heftier and taller Terrence Leather on the former Most Valuable Player to scuttle the potential game-winning Purefoods play.
Reyes was so right in doing that.
“It was one of those decisions that we coaches needed to make,” Reyes added. “Luckily, we guessed it (the play) right.” The Phone Pals improved to 8-8 and stayed in the hunt for a top two berth, while the Giants fell to 7-9 and would have to now train their sights on bagging an automatic seat to the quarterfinals instead.
Leather led the Phone Pals with a brilliant 39-point, 22-rebound, four-assist, three-block and two-steal performance in 47 minutes. Mac Cardona backed him up with 17 points, while Ritualo, in one of his finest performances of late, chipped in with 16.
It was a sorry loss for Purefoods, which was held scoreless for a crucial 4:04 span late in the fourth period that allowed the Phone Pals to erect a 100-93 lead entering the final 1:53.
Purefoods steadily nibbled away at that deficit, getting two straight baskets from Kerby Raymundo, two free throws from Roger Yap and that one-handed jumper in heavy traffic from James to ease ahead, 101-100.
