Tubid made all of his three triple attempts in the fourth quarter Friday night and keyed an 84-81 victory over Powerade as the Gin Kings pressed their bid for a twice-to-beat privilege in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The sometimes over-eager swingman finished with 21 points, 12 of them in the final period as he somehow atoned himself for a relatively bad shooting night after taking 13 total three-point tries, exactly half of what the entire team took for the game.
“Yes, that was one too many,” Ginebra coach Jong Uichico said. “Good thing that the ones that he missed came early in the game, and the ones that he made came late and in the most crucial stages.” Willie Miller had 15 points and Mike Cortez had a big fourth quarter as the Kings quelled a hard finish by the Tigers to jack their second-running slate to 9-3 and temporarily wriggle out of a tie with idle Talk ‘N Text.
The Tropang Texters, meanwhile, get a chance to again tie the Kings with a victory over Rain or Shine in an out-of-town sortie scheduled at Digos City in Davao del Sur Saturday.
Game time is 5 p.m. and a win is needed by the Texters, who will still clash with the Kings on Dec. 10 and would need to at least stay tied with Ginebra until that day. Tournament format calls for the top two teams to get an easy quarterfinal assignment.
Under the new conduct of play, teams that finish 1-2 draw Nos. 8 and 7, respectively, needing to win just once to advance to the Final Four, with the other two quarterfinal parings pitting No. 3 vs No. 6 and No. 4 vs No. 5 in best-of-three affairs, “It was another close game that could have gone either way,” Uichico continued. “We just made big shots in the end, made the necessary stops. That’s the bottom line.
They (Tigers) played really well.” Powerade lost for the seventh straight game and all but bowed out of contention. In dropping to 3-10 overall, the Tigers thus gave Alaska and Rain or Shine free rides into the quarterfinals.
Air21, which is at 4-7, can totally shut the door on the Tigers with a win in its last three games.
Tubid, who became just the 20 player in league history to make more than 500 triples, scored Ginebra’s final four points, with his last field goal – his fifth trey – coming in the final 2:02 mark which gave the Kings an 83-74 lead.
But Powerade closed out hard, scoring seven unanswered points to threaten for the last time at 81-83 with 26.4 seconds left before Tubid was sent to the stripe for 1-of-2 charities that wrapped up scoring with 4.6 seconds remaining.
Gary Daviud scored 15 points to lead the Tigers, who also got 14 from Chico Lanete, and 13 each from Eddie Laure and Dennis Espino.
In the second game, San Miguel formally wrapped up the first quarterfinal incentive by nipping Meralco, 98-94, behind the 18 points of Dondon Hontiveros and the 16 each coming from Jay Washington and Joseph Yeo.
Danny Ildefonso, whose 44-year-old brother Bobby died hours before tip-off because of a kidney disease, accounted for 13 markers, nine rebounds and five assists in just 23 minutes on the floor.
Gabby Espinas paced the B-Boys with 20 points and nine rebounds and starting point guard Chris Ross had 17 points, nine boards and nine assists.
Mac Cardona was held down to just 17 points by the San Miguel defense, and Beermen coach Ato Agustin thought that it was the biggest key to their win.
