MANILA: Another tight game, another tight win by Purefoods.
Only this time, it wasn’t a James Yap nor a Kerby Raymundo who sealed the deal.
Chico Lanete, given the minutes because of the absence of two key guards in the rotation, last night drained a tight jumper at the buzzer that lifted the Tender Juicy Giants to an 88-87 victory over Talk ‘N Text in the Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
“Thank you Chico,” said Yap after the exciting, gut-wrenching game wherein the Giants had to come back from as many as 16 points down, 80-66, also in the final quarter.
Yap, the MVP two years ago, put the Giants within striking distance with a three-pointer before the Tropang Texters bungled a simple play on the other end with 25 seconds left that made the game-winning play possible.
Coach Ryan Gregorio actually drew up the game-winning play for either Raymundo or Yap . But Raymundo muffed a fallaway jumper with Enrico Villanueva keeping the play alive for Purefoods and eventually tapping the ball to Lanete.
Lanete, who was undrafted two years ago before being tapped by the Giants, needed to elude big men Ali Peek and Yancy de Ocampo before flicking in the game-winner.
“Unbelievable,” said Gregorio as Purefoods won for the third straight time and rose to 4-4 overall. “This guy (Lanete) is made of strong schemes. I’ve been very hard on this guy. Tonight, he proved that that he’s a big part of our franchise.
“Good job, buddy.”
Lanete finished with a career-high 24 points — all in the second half — on 7-of-12 shooting while James Yap had his second 30-point game with 30 points on 11-of-22 shooting from the field.
Talk ‘N Text went down for the third straight night and is now at 3-5, just half-a-game out of last place being occupied by struggling and undermanned Barangay Ginebra. Raymundo had 12 points and Topex Robinson added 10, while Villanueva pulled down 12 rebounds for the Giants, who played without dependable sixth man Peter June Simon (MCL injury) and starting point guard Roger Yap (knee).
Mac Cardona scored 21 points to lead the Tropang Texters, who again lost three in a row — the other two against lesser-regarded teams in Red Bull and Rain or Shine.
Four other Talk ‘N Text players scored in twin digits, but no one from among the star-studded lineup was able to score after Cardona hit two straight buckets for what seemed to be a comfy 87-77 lead with 3:29 left.
Before Lanete’s game-winning jumper, the Giants unleashed a 9-0 run capped by that Yap triple.
The 6-foot-2 gunslinger actually scored all but one of those points in that run, which he touched off with a three-pointer.
Yap made the trey with still 30.6 seconds left, but Jimmy Alapag and Cardona had a miscommunication, with Cardona losing the ball out of bounds and giving possession back to the Giants with 25 seconds to play.
This was the second straight tightrope win for the Giants, who needed a mind-boggling turnaround triple from Yap to forge overtime and eke out a 108-105 decision over Air21 last week.
In the second game, Alaska blew a 23-point lead and needed a clutch triple from Willie Miller and win-sealing free throws from Sonny Thoss in the waning seconds to pound out a 95-89 victory over Sta. Lucia.
Miller, described by coach Tim Cone as the best finisher in the league, shattered the game’s last tie at 89 with a pull-up trey before the Aces clamped down hard on the next Sta. Lucia offensives to reclaim a piece of the lead with San Miguel at 6-2.
Without starting guard Ryan Reyes, the defending champion Realtors, on the other hand, also lost for the third straight time to be at 3-4.
