Ginebra takes down San Mig in PBA thriller

In an elimination round match that had the feel and the noise of a championship game, Barangay Ginebra’s charismatic leader and arguably the PBA’s biggest star last night stepped up to the plate like only he can.
Mark Caguioa hit consecutive triples that formed the killer 1-2 punch on San Mig Coffee as the Gin Kings posted a 96-88 Commissioner’s Cup victory where the Araneta Coliseum was packed by more than 16,000 fans screaming for two of the league’s most popular teams.
Ginebra built several 15-point leads and was under siege in the final minutes, thwarting several San Mig rallies with Caguioa hitting the biggest buckets of the night that finally snuffed the fight out of the defending champion Mixers.
“We caught a big fish tonight,” Ginebra coach Alfrancis Chua said in Filipino, sounding awfully proud of his boys whom he described as the shortest in the tournament.
“The boys worked very hard for it,” he continued. “We are the shortest, smallest team in the tournament, yet we play with the biggest heart. And Mark Caguioa epitomized that.”
With their lead down to five, Caguioa hit the first of those triples to make it 85-77 and then drained another to sandwich two Denzel Bowles free throws for a nine-point Ginebra lead going into the final 37 seconds, which triggered a raucous celebration from the Ginebra faithful in the gallery.
The loss was the first in the last four games for the Mixers and their fourth in seven games overall. It was also the first setback for San Mig in its last seven confrontations with Ginebra dating back to the semifinals of the Governors’ Cup last season.
Import Vernon Macklin also had a big hand, shooting 20 points that went with 16 rebounds in a performance that more or less sealed his spot in the roster, never mind if the Kings are just 2-2 with him.
“He may be less talented offensively compared to the other imports,” Chua said. “But there’s no doubt in my mind that he has the biggest heart. And one other thing that is hard to find is that the locals love playing with him.
“Vernon just wants to play, wants to fight it out every night,” Chua said.
Bowles, the Best Import here last year, paced the Mixers with 25 points and 16 rebounds but was clearly taken out of his rhythm by Macklin, his boyhood friend from Washington.
Macklin, a National Basketball Association veteran, knows every move of Bowles, having taught him the ropes of shade lane-play when they were both growing up.
James Yap, the former two-time MVP, contributed 21 points for the Mixers and was actually able to drain two straight treys of his own in the stretch. But it was clear that Caguioa’s buckets had already did their damage.
Air21, meanwhile, finally snapped a five-game losing streak earlier in the night by bringing down Globalport and new import Walter Sharpe, 106-94.
Michael Dunigan, the goat in the last Air21 loss, was the hero for the Express last night after finishing with 35 points and plucking down 20 rebounds.
Air21 is now also at 2-5 and its win shoved Globalport alone in the cellar with a 2-6 slate after the Batang Pier lost for the fifth straight game, tying the tournament-mark in futility which the Express previously held.
Sharpe flew in Saturday night from the United States, taking legitimate NBA experience to Globalport, which did away with Justin Williams after seven games.
But Sharpe was clearly fagged out because of jet lag, cramping up on both legs in the fourth quarter. He finished with 24 points and nine rebounds.