BY NOLI CORTEZ
TALK N TEXT has a lot of pride and it
showed in the way it scrambled for the crumbs last night.
Playing like they were in the finals, the
Phone Pals handily drubbed Red Bull 124-111 to salvage third
place in the TNT-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Asi Taulava wound up with 30 points and 15
rebounds while Anthony Washington scored a career-high 27
points for the Phone Pals, who finally had a podium finish in
an import-less tournament.
"We wanted to end the tournament with a
bang, so to speak, and the boys translated that desire into
their game tonight," said coach Derick Pumaren.
The Phone Pals so badly wanted the placing,
their third in all, that they led by as many as 25 points in
the third quarter before quashing the Bulls’ protracted
uprisings in the end.
Cyrus Baguio also had a career-best 27
points to show the way for Red Bull, which had assistant coach
Gee Abanilla calling the shots in lieu of coach Yeng Guiao,
who served a one-game suspension slapped on him by the league
last Tuesday.
Still battling at press time in Game 1 of
their best-of-seven clash for the title were San Miguel Beer
and Ginebra.
Rico Villanueva, Junthy Valenzuela and Mick
Pennisi each chipped in at least 10 points but the Bulls’ bid
for only their second third place finish got scuttled when
they made only 40 of 87 shots, missed nine free throws and
were out-rebounded 42-53.
Guard Mark Cardona also served out a
one-game suspension but that hardly mattered for Pumaren as
Harvey Carey added 22 points and 15 rebounds and Ren-Ren
Ritualo fired 13 points.
The win was Talk N Text’s lone victory over
Red Bull in three meetings in the conference while the windup
gave Pumaren his highest finish in an All-Filipino since
winning the crown with Sunkist in 1995.
It was all TNT as early as the first half,
when Washington scattered 17 points to lead a balanced attack
and shove the Phone Pals ahead for good from a 30-31 deficit.
The Phone Pals surged ahead for good at
37-30 after the first quarter, padded the lead to 11 at the
half and went into the fourth quarter protecting a 97-78
spread, largely due to Taulava’s 10 points.
Red Bull would come no closer than 11
points the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa slightly
widened his lead over San Miguel Beer’s Danny Seigle in the
search for the conference’s Best Player Award.
Caguioa, who led Seigle by just one
statistical point going into the semifinals, now has an
average of 39 SPs, 1.7 ahead of the Beermen hotshot.
Also in the running for the tournament’s
top individual honor are Rudy Hatfield of Ginebra (35.8 SPs),
Alaska’s Willie Miller (33.9) and Sta. Lucia realty’s Kelly
Williams (33.9), who is also the conference’s best rookie.
Statistics account for 30 percent in
choosing the BPC, with votes from the players (25 percent),
media (30 percent), television coveror ABC-5 (10 percent) and
Commissioner’s Office (five percent) making up the rest.
From among the top five, the voters will
choose the top three with 60 points going to the first, 30 to
the second and 10 to the third.
The award will be announced before Game Four of the
best-of-seven finals between Ginebra and SMB.
