MANILA: It’s a wake-up call San Miguel might need in the future more than last night.
“It just goes to show that we need to come out hard every night,” coach Siot Tanquingcen told reporters last night after barely scraping past cellar-dwelling Barako Bull, 99-92, in a non-bearing Fiesta Cup game for both of them at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
“We came out (tonight) thinking that it would be a walk in the park for us,” Tanquingcen added. “It’s a good thing that we had a whole (second) half to play ahead. We might not be as lucky (in the playoffs).”
Sharpness would be foremost in the mind of Tanquingcen from now on, since his Beermen will earn another long break for qualifying No. 1 and making the semifinals outright and will not get the benefit of tournament action for that long.
This would mean that San Miguel will have at least three weeks of rest after it wraps up its elimination round schedule, which still has two games remaining.
Last night, San Miguel scooted to a 16-point lead early before dropping its guard to trail by as many as 12 at the end of the first half. The Beermen were limited to just eight points in the second period and needed a big third quarter to get back in the hunt.
And when they did, the Beermen got the goods from old hands Danny Ildefonso and Dondon Hontiveros and import Gabe Freeman in the stretch to scuttle the Energy Boosters and rise to 10-2 overall.
The Boosters dropped an eighth straight game and finished at the tailend of the 10-team pack for the second straight conference with a 2-12 tally. They will play in the wildcard and would need to beat their foe two times to advance.
From a 52-40 deficit at the start of the third period, the Beermen equalized at 54 courtesy of a Freeman basket with 8:03 remaining in the quarter.
But Barako Bull did not just fold up and die right there, engaging the powerful Beermen in a toe-to-toe slugfest that had the Boosters leading for the last time at 80-78 after a Jojo Duncil three-point play off Freeman with 7:45 left in the fourth.
Defending champion Barangay Ginebra, meanwhile, slugs it out with Alaska in an out-of-town sortie today, not only looking for a win that would extend a six-game run, but more importantly, keep the Gin Kings in the hunt for an automatic Final Four seat.
The Kings are at 7-5 and are just the only other team which can get to win nine games in the eliminations after San Miguel. And that plateau could prove to be the most important since it could get them the No. 2 slot after what happened in the second game.
Rain or Shine, heavily favored to prevail, took a 94-91 overtime loss at the hands of Coca-Cola as the Elasto Painters closed out with an 8-6 slate.
A complicated scenario could crop up for the No. 2 slot with a handful of teams all capable of finishing at 8-6, and the Kings could avoid this with a win against the Aces and the Tigers next week since they will close out with a 9-5 card.
James Penny scored 30 points, including a rare four-point play with 4.6 seconds left in regulation which gave the Tigers a two-point lead that Solom Mercado erased with two free throws to forge overtime at 84-all.
Coca-Cola improved to 5-7 and could get out of the lower half of the standings, hence a lighter assignment in the playoffs. Game time is 5 p.m. at the Albay Astrodome in Legaspi City , with the odds favoring the Kings, especially so since the Aces have been on a rut, being the losers of their last two games and playing with none of the form that gave them a Finals stint in the Philippine Cup.
Purefoods lost the chance to figure in a playoff for the No. 2 spot when the Tender Juicy Giants absorbed a stinging 104-95 loss to Sta. Lucia Thursday night in Pasig , with the best that they could do is to close out with an 8-6 card.
That win was the first for the Realtors in their last four games, and it came even with Kelly Williams continuing to miss action because of a mysterious blood disease that manifested itself in Bacolod during the last All-Star break.
Team sources have said that the reigning MVP would be out for the remainder of the season, and possibly out, too, with his commitments to the national team.
According to sources close to the 6-foot-7 Williams, the swingman’s platelet count is dropping at an alarming rate, though he doesn’t have dengue. The effect of this is that he is weakened and could barely walk at a fast pace. Ginebra has been playing like one solid crew ever since import David Noel arrived. Never mind if the Kings continue to miss Mark Caguioa, they have so far plugged the holes with Cyrus Baguio proving to be a most welcome addition.
