MANILA: For most of the final five minutes, Air21 coach Bo Perasol sat on the bench, which is very unlikely of coaches these days — and in a game this big.
But he had his eyes on the floor all the time, liking very much how hard his Express played — and won — despite enormous odds.
Air21 came charging back from 15 points down in the first half and from 10 behind early in the fourth period last night to post a 99-91 victory over Magnolia and make the Fiesta Cup finals opposite Barangay Ginebra.
“In the last five minutes, I was just sitting there because I was nervous myself. It was them (players) who really wanted to make it to the finals,” Perasol said a few minutes later after the victory fashioned out in front of a pro-Magnolia crowd at the Cuneta Astrodome.
“But there really is nobody that deserves credit other than the team as a whole,” he added. “I can’t even say that I am happy, because it (my feeling) is beyond that. This is something very fulfilling we achieved as a whole.”
Air21 closed out the best-of-seven series, 4-2, and will play for the franchise’s first title starting Wednesday against the crowd-darling Gin Kings.
Perasol was an unknown in the league until late in the 2006 season when he was tapped to replace Bong Ramos as head coach. “I was even one of those who thought that I couldn’t do it (coach this team). But management gave me the trust the last few years and I grew as a coach,” he said.
Most Valuable Player candidate Arwind Santos and Gary David played with a lot of fire when the chips were seemingly down for the Express, hitting big buckets in the second half to fan the flames of what turned out to be a great Air21 comeback.
Ranidel De Ocampo and second-tier guard Egay Billones played big in the stretch, combining for 20 points in the fourth quarter, including the biggest three-pointers of this series, to seal the Air21 victory.
Santos scored 10 points in the second quarter, while David had all of his 20 in the final three periods as the duo never showed quit all night and took the Express along for the ride.
And that was before De Ocampo and Billones helped the cause, with De Ocampo shooting seven straight points and Billones two triples that ushered the Express ahead to stay, 92-83, entering the final two minutes. De Ocampo finished with 17 points after scoring just five in the first three periods.
Santos led the Express with 24 and 10 rebounds and David chipped in with 20, 17 of them coming in the final two periods. Steven Thomas was held down to just nine markers, but had 20 rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
For most of the night, it looked like Magnolia was headed to taking this series into a deciding seventh game.
The Beverage Masters played with a complete lineup with Dondon Hontiveros given clearance, zooming to a 40-25 lead after a Hontiveros triple early in the second quarter.
Magnolia then weathered all Air21 fight backs from thereon, until all its guns conked out after establishing a 78-68 lead with 8:51 to play after Dorian Pena hit a short stab in the face of an Air21 double team. David had a basket and De Ocampo a triple and Magnolia’s last gasp came at the 7:27 mark when Hontiveros knocked in another three which made it 81-73.
It was all downhill for the Beverage Masters from there.
as Santos dropped a trey, David a free throw and De Ocampo those seven straight points that came before those two Billones three-pointers.
And the best that the Beverage Masters could muster in the face of that run was a Marc Pingris follow-up as the Express scooted to an 11-point lead that proved safe at that point.
