Tigers surprise Beermen

BY NOLI CORTEZ

COCA-Cola caught San Miguel Beer napping last night and completed a stunning 118-107 victory last night in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Asi Taulava and Norman Gonzales set personal conference-highs with 27 and 22 points, respectively, while RJ Rizada established a new career best 20 points as the Tigers pulled off the win they wanted so badly.

The win was the fourth in 16 games for Coke, enabling the Tigers to move into a tie with idle Rain or Shine at eighth and putting some distance between the Tigers and Barako Bull, which has a 3-13 mark.

"We were lucky to catch San Miguel in a game that has no importance to them and on the other hand was very important to us," said Coke coach Bo Perasol, whose team goes up next against the Elasto Painters tomorrow before winding up the 18-game eliminations against the Energy Boosters on Wednesday.

"We have to feel better with ourselves because we have two important games coming up," added Perasol.

The team that finishes 10th and last gets eliminated.

The loss, its fourth in 17 games, hardly mattered for SMB since it had already clinched the first automatic semifinals berth as early as last week.

Any hopes the Beermen may have had of salvaging the game got dimmed by the sidelining of Danny Seigle and Jay Washington due to back problems while Dorian Pena nursed a knee injury. Long in the injury list is Danny Ildefonso (foot injury).

Dondon Hontiveros, who torched Coke for 17 points and 11 rebounds in a 107-84 win last Nov. 4, saw action for 20 minutes but scored only five points on 1-for-4 field shooting.

Coke’s touch was fiery, especially in the fourth period. In that 12-minute stretch, the Tigers made 12 of 19 shots while the Beermen muffed 17 of 29 attempts, including eight from beyond the arc. In all, Coke made 43 of 85 shots to SMB’s 37 of 87.

"We knew we have to win or lose fighting for it," explained Perasol. "For us to score that much talagang nag-step up ‘yung ibang local players."

With most of SMB’s big men out, Taulava and Larry Rodriguez frolicked in the paint with 15 and 12 rebounds, respectively, leading Coke’s 58-48 advantage off the boards.

Showing more energy and intensity, the Tigers took control right in the second period and maintained 11-point leads in the third quarter before repeatedly fending off the Beermen’s repeated attacks.

Best exemplifying the struggle were back-to-back triples by Lordy Tugade and Jonas Villanueva that capped an 8-0 run and put SMB within 103-106, still 2:02 left.

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