MANILA, 16 October 2006 — After taking a tumble against a lightly-regarded team, Red Bull knew that getting back on track meant cutting a fancied squad down to size.
Without their two leading scorers and all, the Bulls burst Barangay Ginebra’s bubble of invincibility last night after an 84-79 win in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum.
And to prove his point that his team did nothing out of the ordinary, coach Yeng Guiao talked as if it was just another day at the office.
“I felt that we had a good chance, against Ginebra or any team for that matter,” Guiao later said. Red Bull played with a sudden change in form, so to speak, just a few nights after playing listless and being blown off the court by Coca-Cola, 86-105 on Wednesday.
The Bulls were without shooting guard Lordy Tugade, out with a bruised knee, and Junethy Valenzuela, who served out a one-game suspension after being tossed off the court because of two flagrant fouls in that Coca-Cola loss.
Enrico Villanueva fired 24 points to lead all Red Bull shooters, while sophomore Leo Najorda scattered 14 and rookie Carlo Sharma broke out with 12 points while helping out in the paint against Ginebra’s high-profile roster of big men.
Red Bull was in control practically for the entire match, quite a feat considering that five nights ago, this team looked disjointed and trailed the Tigers by huge deficits all game.
It was the third victory in four starts for the Bulls, who pulled the Gin Kings down into a tie for third place behind the 3-0 cards of idle Talk ‘N Text and Sta. Lucia.
Incidentally, the Realtors got there after a 98-92 decision of Alaska Saturday night in a road game in San Juan, where defending champion Purefoods finally won one, 103-101, over the hard-fighting Air21 Express.
Rookie Kelly Williams finished with 15 points for the Realtors, while the Chunkee Giants almost blew a 29-point lead and had to watch Arwind Santos’ potential game-winning triple at the buzzer sail long.
San Miguel’s woes, meanwhile, kept piling up after the Beermen took a third straight loss earlier, 96-88, at the hands of the surprising newcomer Welcoat Dragons.
Jojo Tangkay, living a second life in the pros after a forgettable stint with the Realtors a couple of seasons back, hit eight of his team-high 18 points inside the final five minutes as the Dragons levelled their record to 2-2.
Tangkay scored back-to-back triples in that surge and the Dragons pounced on a golden opportunity with Danny Seigle and Danny Ildefonso out yet again.
The other Welcoat victory came at the expense of the Coke Tigers, 85-75, and like in that game, coach Leo Austria got practically the entire team to contribute with four others finishing in double digits to back up Tangkay.
Denver Lopez and Rob Wainwright each chipped in with 16, while big men Jay-R Reyes and Jun Jun Cabatu combined for another 15 markers. “We were lucky that San Miguel is undermanned,” said Austria . “I didn’t expect us to win a game early (against Coke, the team’s second assignment). Definitely, we also didn’t expect this one.”
