Giants tower anew over Aces, near crown

Source: Philippine Star


MANILA, Philippines - Purefoods once again extricated itself from a tight situation and beat out Alaska Milk, 79-78, in a topsy-turvy finish to build an impregnable 3-0 lead in their KFC PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven championship showdown at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Teams which have gotten such a lead in the entire league history all ended up hoisting a championship trophy.

The Giants may well become the latest team to do it, taking a shot at a four-game sweep in Game Four Wednesday in the same venue.

Curiously, the Aces, who swept past the Barangay Ginebra Kings, 4-0, on the way to the finals, are now on the brink of being swept away.

They found themselves on a 0-3 hole as they squandered a 13-point spread, 42-55, and main man Willie Miller failed to bail the team out, missing a drive against a phalanx of Purefoods defenders in the closing seconds.

“Obviously, our defense held up. We held them down to five points in the last nine minutes and to a single free throw in the last three minutes, and it’s really a testament to our defense,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

“We’ve been that all tournament long. We have the right formula and all we need to do is do that night in and night out,” Gregorio added.

The youthful Purefoods mentor said they will be out to do the same in Game Four, explaining they have no intention of celebrating until they have wrapped up the series.

Alaska coach Tim Cone was all praises of Purefoods on what’s they’re doing, but stressed the series is not over.

“We’ve lost three tough down-the-stretch basketball. It could’ve all gone either way with a better coaching,” said Cone, putting the blame only on himself.

The magnificent Purefoods starters all struggled in the contest but the Giants pulled through with a huge lift from relievers KG Canaleta and Peter June Simon.

Canaleta delivered eight points coming off the bench in the fourth quarter, none bigger than the fall-away three-pointer he made to tie the count after a long, long Purefoods chase at 77-all with time down to 1:27.

He earlier slammed off Reynel Hugnatan then nailed his first three-pointer, highlighting a key run that pushed the Giants to within three at 66-69 at the onset of the final quarter.

Kerby Raymundo had a poor 1-of-13 field-goal shooting but he made the lone conversion when it mattered the most, giving Purefoods the lead at 79-77 with 57 ticks left.

James Yap led the team with 14 points with wife Kris, son Baby James and other members of the Aquino family in the gallery.

After three straight errors and couples of misses, the Aces ended a three-minute dry spell with Miller splitting his charities to make it 78-79 with 31.3 seconds to go.

Then, Alaska got the opportunity to salvage the game as Canaleta missed a harried three-point shot.

First, Joe De Vance missed a drive but Alaska regained possession with Miller winning his jump ball with James Yap.

Suing for time with 6.9 ticks left, the Aces went to Miller with the Alaska fans looking forward for the unraveling of a “Miller Time.”

Alas, Miller couldn’t convert his shot against a four-man Purefoods defense, triggering a Purefoods celebration as Miller’s running shot hit above the rim.

The scores:

Purefoods 79 – Yap J. 14, Simon 12, Canaleta 8, Pingris 8, Reavis 8, Raymundo 8, Maierhofer 7, Yap R. 5, Allado 5, Salvador 3, Artadi 1.

Alaska 78 – Miller 20, De Vance 16, Thoss 12, Dela Cruz 10, Tenorio 8, Hugnatan 6, Ferriols 4, Borboran 2, Fonacier 0.

Quarterscores: 15-21, 36-44, 61-67, 79-78