Salvacion Trey Lifts Ginebra Past Alaska in OT

MANILA, 3 April 2006 — Sunday Salvacion will not forget this particular night named for him.

The Barangay Ginebra swingman drained a broken play triple with eight-tenths of a second left last night to lift the Kings to a nail-biting 91-88 overtime victory over Alaska in the PBA Philippine Cup.

“It was a broken play, the ball finding its way into Sunday’s hands,” explained Kings’ coach Siot Tanquingcen. “Like any other coach, you would want your best scorers to have the ball in situations like that.

Salvacion got the chance to be the hero in the closely-fought game when Eric Menk and Mark Caguioa were effectively covered in the inbounds play by the swarming Alaska defense.

Jay-Jay Helterbrand gave up the ball and flicked the pass to Salvacion as Ginebra won for the second straight time and improved to 4-3.

The Aces, who had at least two chances of winning the game in regulation, dropped their second straight assignment to be at 3-4.

Caguioa, the tournament’s leading scorer, paced the Kings with 25 markers despite failing to score in the fourth period. His heroics came a lot earlier, when the Kings fought back from as many as 10 points down in the third period.

Menk, on the other hand, was solid for the second straight game after an aknle injury slowed him down, contributing 22 points and 12 rebounds with Helterband scattering 21.

Sister team San Miguel, meanwhile, wrested solo leadership later after a 94-90 win over Talk ‘N Text that was preserved by two Olsen Racela free throws in the final 8.5 seconds.

Racela, the league’s leading free throw shooter, flubbed his first charity in the young tournament after coming into the game a perfect 12-of-12. It was a miss he’ll certainly not cry over after making the ones that mattered.