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| Sta. Lucia beats Alaska, keeps title defense hopes alive |
| Written by staff | ||
| Saturday, 24 January 2009 05:50 | ||
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 Sta. Lucia Realty kept its title defense hopes alive after posting a come-from-behind 81-74 win over Alaska in Game 5 of their best-of-seven KFC-PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series Friday night.The Realtors came back from a 16-point deficit early in the game and banked on the exploits of Joseph Yeo, Dennis Miranda, Dennis Espino and reigning Most Valuable Player Kelly Williams in the last 36 minutes to trim down the Aces' lead in the series to 3-2. Sta. Lucia hopes to equalize the series on Sunday at the Cuneta Astrodome. "Mahirap talaga but anything is possible," said Realtors head coach Boyet Fernandez who drew a game-high 22 points from Yeo, 11 of which came in the pivotal fourth quarter. "We just have to stay focus and I hope this win gives us the momentum going into Sunday's game," Fernandez added. "I'm happy hindi bumibitaw ang players ko but we're still down in the series." The Realtors literally rose from the grave after trailing 16-32 but showed resiliency and cut down that double-digit deficit to 41-44 entering the second half. Williams and last year's Rookie of the Year Ryan Reyes teamed up in the opening minutes of the third period and gave their team the first taste of the lead at 48-44 with still 8:46 left in that stage. Alaska, which is trying to end an eight-year All-Filipino finals stint drought in the league, actually took the lead back after Reynel Hugnatan sank his free throws, 72-71 with 3:54 remaining. But that proved to be the last straw for the No. 1 ranked team. Miranda and Yeo hit back-to-back three-pointers that sparked a critical 8-0 run by Sta. Lucia to take the game for good at 79-72 with 38.2 ticks left to stay in the series. "Sa series na ito, kung sino ang maganda ang depense 'yun ang may malaking chance na manalo," said Yeo, who was blanked in the third period by Alaska's tight defense. Sta. Lucia will be trying to become the third team in PBA history to bounce back from a 1-3 deficit in a best-of-seven series after Ginebra (against Shell in 1991 First Conference finals) and Purefoods (against Alaska in 2006 Philippine Cup semis) and win it. "We'll just take it one game at a time and let's see what happens on Sunday," said Fernandez, who also got 14 points from Williams. Espino added 12 and 15 rebounds while Reyes and Nelbert Omolon chipped in 10 each for the Realtors, who are trying to become the first ballclub to defend the All-Filipino crown since Great Taste accomplished the feat in 1984 and 1985. LA Tenorio led Alaska with 17 points while Hugnatan chipped in 13. Sonny Thoss netted 10 points and same number of rebounds for coach Tim Cone, who is eyeing a league-record 20th finals appearance in the PBA. In the second game, San Miguel Beer also avoided elimination with a 125-115 win over Talk 'N Text to slice the latter's lead to 3-2. Marc Pingris netted a conference-high 28 points to lead the Beermen in the much-needed victory. Anthony Washington added 19 points while Lordy Tugade and Danny Seigle chipped in 14 markers apiece for coach Siot Tanquingcen. Mark Cardona paced the Tropang Texters with 19 points while Jared Dillinger and Ranidel de Ocampo scored 18 and 17 points. |
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