MANILA: This has been the way it has been for Purefoods this season.
The walking wounded Tender Juicy Giants found another way to win via the backdoor last night when Enrico Villanueva hit a left-handed short stab off a broken play with eight-tenths of a second left for an 84-83 victory over San Miguel in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations.
With James Yap playing under the weather and the Giants still two formidable men short, Purefoods tugged at the coattails of San Miguel before cashing in on a golden chance in the endgame to rise to 6-7 at the Cuneta Astrodome.
San Miguel took a third straight loss after bungling an 83-82 lead heading into the final 34.7 seconds, when Dondon Hontiveros nailed a difficult fallaway that pushed Purefoods’ back against the wall yet again.
“We are a wounded team,” Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio said. “The good thing about it that we have the players who fight to win night in and night out.
“This has been the story of our campaign: winning in overtime, by close margins and by buzzer-beaters,” Gregorio said. “But make no mistake about it, we’ll take it anytime.”
Kerby Raymundo, who took most of the scoring cudgels, wriggled out of a triple team and found the wide-open Villanueva underneath to help key the win and push the Beermen to a 7-4 record.
“He (Raymundo) had the presence of mind to make that pass after seeing Rico (Villanueva) free,” said Gregorio, who admitted drawing a final play for his prized forward who was immediately met by a clamping San Miguel defense after the inbounds.
Raymundo also gave the Giants an 82-81 lead with 2:05 to play after completing a three-point play off Mick Pennisi before that Hontiveros shot shoved the Beermen ahead.
San Miguel had another chance to put the game away after Yap was called for an offensive foul on Pennisi with 30 seconds remaining. But the Giants played hard, wise defense on the other end, forcing Pennisi to launch a long triple that hit nothing for a 24-second violation, earning back possession with 5.7 seconds remaining which proved enough for a game-winning play.
Raymundo finished with 25 points, Villanueva had 12 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in a sterling effort that made up for a seven-point night by the former MVP Yap.
Lordy Tugade led the Beermen with 18 points, Dorian Pena had 17 and eight boards and Jay Washington came off the bench to scatter 13 markers and haul down nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola won a second straight game earlier after getting double-doubles from Asi Taulava and a similarly ailing Alex Cabagnot in an 84-73 decision of Rain or Shine.
Taulava scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Cabagnot, suiting up despite a painful left hamstring, poured in 15 points and a night-high 11 assists to lead the Tigers to their fifth win in 12 games.
Nic Belasco added 13 points and nine boards and Ronjay Buenafe and Mark Telan chipped in 11 points each with Telan grabbing the same number of rebounds for the Tigers.
Coca-Cola’s defense also held the Elasto Painters in check, allowing just a 36.4 percebt shooting (28-of-77), the second straight time they held a foe under 40 percent after limiting Purefoods to 37 percent last Friday in a 93-72 win.
Rain or Shine’s total was also a conference-low for the team with Solomon Mercado and Mark Isip’s 12 points proving to be team-highs.
Gabe Norwood was bottled up more often than not by a pressing defense Duremdes drew up, as the No. 1 pick overall in the Draft was held to just three points. He did have eight assists, though. Rain or Shine dropped to an even 6-6 card, no thanks to Jay-R Reyes limping off the floor with 2:24 left with a right ankle sprain after landing hard on the foot of teammate Rob Wainwright.
