MANILA, Philippines—A freak play that left Dennis Espino wide open keyed an 83-82 Sta. Lucia victory over Coca-Cola which gave the Realtors their third straight win in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup and denied Kenneth Duremdes a winning coaching debut Wednesday night at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Sta. Lucia skipper found himself unguarded underneath after teammates Ryan Buenafe and Asi Taulava got tangled up during the inbound play and Espino scored on an easy stab that helped put the Realtors into a momentary tie for second place at 3-1.
Duremdes called the shots for the Tigers after the relief of Binky Favis, and the former MVP and member of the league’s 25 All-Time Greats did a great job until that odd play sealed their third straight loss for a 1-4 card.
“I’ll take that result anytime,” Sta. Lucia coach Boyet Fernandez later told reporters at the Araneta Coliseum press room. “Coke is a different team (under Duremdes) and I am glad that we got to face them after just having one day to prepare (under a new coach).
“But believe me, Coke will be a different team from now on and they will be very dangerous.”
Espino actually scored the Realtors’ final five points, all of them coming after a drought that lasted for more than five minutes and allowed the Tigers to open up an 82-78 lead after a Taulava free throw with 87 seconds remaining.
The winning basket with still 33.4 seconds left came after the Tigers bungled a chance to pad their 82-81 lead when John Arigo took a hurried jumper instead of buying some time first after a timeout.
After Espino’s crucial hit, the Tigers blew three attempts to turn the game around, the last a Mark Macapagal triple at the buzzer which rattled out and set off a wild celebration among the Sta. Lucia faithful.
Duremdes, the league’s 1998 MVP, did a good job in his first game in an interim capacity, ably rotating his players down the stretch.
But Alex Cabagnot fouled out going into the final two minutes and he had to make do without Taulava in the final 33.4 after Buenafe hit Taulava’s tattooed right calf muscle and sent the 6-foot-9 center limping off the floor.
It was the defending champion Realtors’ first win over Coca-Cola since the Tigers acquired Taulava more than a year ago.
Taulava went on to finish with 24 points and 15 rebounds, while Buenafe scored 17 coming off the bench.
Espino actually made up for a horrid stretch when he missed at least three shots and had a traveling violation which allowed the Tigers to build that four-point edge.
The last time the Realtors made a basket was at the 6:20 mark, when Espino hit a layup that made it 78-75.
Espino himself broke the long dry spell, when he completed a three-point play off Nic Belasco with 45.4 left which put Sta. Lucia within 81-82.
The scores:
STA. LUCIA 83—Yeo 15, Espino 14, Williams 12, Omolon 12, Gonzales 9, Miranda 8, Aquino 7, Gregorio 4, Reyes 2, Mendoza 0.
COCA-COLA 82—Taulava 24, Buenafe 17, Belasco 13, Arigo 11, Cabagnot 8, Calimag 4, Telan 4, Rizada 1, Caceres 0, Baguion 0, Macapagal 0, Dimaunahan 0.
Quarters: 29-20, 46-46, 66-65, 83-82
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment