MANILA: More than talent, San Miguel it showed it also had the character to win against a team whose poise and determination are unparalleled in the Philippine Basketball Association.
The Beermen completed their rise from the grave last night, controlling Game 7 of the Fiesta Cup playoffs practically from the opening tip for a 90-79 victory over Barangay Ginebra before close to 21,000 fans that couldn’t help the Gin Kings fall at the Araneta Coliseum.
Gabriel Freeman and Jonas Villanueva sparked the Beermen no end, taking turns in making the plays that hurt the Kings as San Miguel upped its all-time high collection of championships to 18 after coming back from a 2-3 deficit in the best-of-seven series.
Freeman, named earlier in the series as the Best Import of the conference, finished with 29 points and 18 rebounds, totally outplaying counterpart David Noel, who couldn’t help the Kings in a game he needed to deliver most.
Noel, whose 29-point effort in Game 5 gifted the Kings with a 3-2 lead, was a dud for the second straight night, shooting just eight points on 3-of-11 shooting - including 0-of-5 from beyond the arc - in what could go down as the worst game of his PBA career.
Villanueva, meanwhile, after being named the season’s Most Improved Player last week, finished with 15 points and seven assists and was adjudged by the PBA Press Corps as the Finals Most Valuable Player.
The 6-foot-1 point guard out of Far Eastern in the UAAP went on to average 11 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Beermen, certainly one of the most outstanding numbers for the team along with Danny Ildefonso’s.
“You have to work hard to be blessed. It (winning a championship again) took some time and I would like to apologize to the fans for us taking so long with this talented team,” said San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen.
Incidentally, Tanquingcen remained unbeaten in four playoff match-ups with mentor Jong Uichico, or ever since their partnership, while with San Miguel, was split in 2005, the last time San Miguel won a championship.
“God gave us that opportunity to show our character. It’s always been never-say-die with Ginebra. When we lost Game 5, that’s when we were really tested and we showed our pride coming out (for Game 7),” added Tanquingcen.
For the first time in the physical series, San Miguel was able to start hot and was able to lead after the first quarter after getting a combined 22 points from Freeman, Villanueva and Marc Pingris in that span.
The Beermen led by as many as 13 in the first period before bloating this to 17 several times in the third as Ginebra never really got going despite the egging of the season’s largest crowd that braved a day-long downpour to fill the Big Dome to the rafters.
From a 45-37 lead at the half, the Beermen opened up the third period with a 14-5 spurt for a 59-42 lead, a buffer which was not really threatened until the final buzzer.
Ginebra was able to chop that deficit down to seven twice, the last at 69-76 after a Rafi Reavis basket with 7:25 left in the fourth. But San Miguel had an answer each time as Freeman tipped in a Villanueva miss with 5:25 left for an 81-69 lead that totally took the fight out of the never-say-die Kings.
Jay-Jay Helterbrand, despite a bad left hamstring, was still able to score 15 points in the first half to keep Ginebra in the mix. He finished with 25 and seven assists to lead the Kings before flying to Taipei today to join the rest of the National Team in the Jones Cup championship.
Eric Menk dragged in aching body to score 12 points for the Kings and Ronald Tubid added 10 despite being in foul trouble from the second quarter on.
But Ginebra still fell because Noel couldn’t deliver. He played for 43 minutes, and Ginebra’s cause wasn’t helped by the ejection of Sunday Salvacion in the dying minutes of the first period because of a Flagrant Foul 2 called for planting an elbow on Freeman’s face. It was the perfect ending San Miguel had hoped for after dominating the entire tournament.
The Beermen either led, or shared the lead, for the whole of the eliminations after opening up with eight straight wins and looking unbeatable.
Ginebra, meanwhile, could look at everyone with its head held high, finishing runner-up for a team that languished long in the cellar because of import woes certainly is a big achievement.
