Déjà vu all over again as SMB outlasts Ginebra

Déjà vu all over again as SMB outlasts Ginebra

San Miguel 79 vs. Barangay Ginebra 78

by rick olivares

November 20, 2010

Araneta Coliseum

The PBA Sunday Showdown was a case of déjà vu all over again as the two games featuring return bouts between the four protagonists had the same results as their first encounters.

In the opening match of the Philippine Cup double header, the Alaska Aces buried the Barako Bull Energy Boosters 87-67 while in the nightcap between front-running San Miguel Beer and second-place Barangay Ginebra, it came down to a fumble in the end game.

With 13.4 seconds left in the match, the Beermen held a 79-78 lead after Jay Washington tipped in his own miss after he posted up the smaller Willy Wilson and got superb inside position for an offensive board over the Kings’ Rudy Hatfield.

In Ginebra’s final offensive, the ball was passed to Willie Miller who tried to blow by Beerman Arwind Santos but got blocked from behind. The loose ball went towards Rudy Hatfield who failed to control the ball. SMB’s Dondon Hontiveros grabbed the ball and scooted all the way to his team’s side of the court as San Miguel repeated over Ginebra to take a huge two game lead ahead of the Kings and Talk ‘N Text for a 9-2 slate that moved them closer to the number one seed and the crucial twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.

The match was actually between the top offensive team (San Miguel) and best defensive team (Ginebra) but the Beermen showed that they too can get things done defensively.

The Beermen average 93.5 points per game while the Kings have allowed a league low 74.8 in nine contests. In their return bout, the Kings outrebounded the Beermen 56-40 and had more steals 7-4, but the Beermen had 10 shot blocks to Ginebra’s solitary rejection (by Hatfield) and forced more turnovers (21 to 10).

The Kings, as they did in their first meeting of the season, started out like a house on fire. After Ginebra center Rico Villanueva opened up the lane (he did his damage only in the first half with 5 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists in the first half) and Ronald Tubid launched long bombs (12 points and three triples), the Beermen came back behind Danny Seigle’s 9 points late in the second quarter that allowed the league leaders to take a 45-40 lead after 24 minutes of play.

When the third quarter got underway, San Miguel’s physicality inside forced Ginebra head coach Jong Uichico to pull out Villanueva and Eric Menk in favor of the more mobile Hatfield and Willy Wilson. It almost immediately backfired as the taller Beermen clamped down on the smaller lineup. They forced Ginebra to three 24-second shot clock violations in a two-minute span. A couple of minutes later, the Kings also shot an airball right before another shot clock violation.

The Beermen threatened to blow the game wide open after Hontiveros dropped a dead-eye three to make it 64-50 with 2:14 left in the third quarter but the Kings behind Mark Caguioa and rookie Jimbo Aquino sparked a comeback. The smaller but faster unit worked. But it was only a matter of time before the Beermen made that adjustment.

The Kings notched the count at 68-all after Menk scored on a gimme after Aquino found him open underneath.

The two teams battled back and forth and it seemed that Ginebra would even up their head-to-head match ups for the conference when Hatfield scored on a similar unmolested undergoal stab from a brilliant feed by Tubid to make it 78-77 for the Kings. Wilson had a chance to pad that lead but he his sideline jumper was long and the Beermen collared the defensive board that lead to Washington’s basket.

In their first round encounter, Miller also had the ball with time running down and the ball bounced off his foot to preserve San Miguel’s 69-68 lead.

“Once more it came down to the final play with a stop on Miller,” said a happy Ato Agustin after the match. “When people think of San Miguel, it’s always the offense. Pero we can also play good defense and pinakita lang namin yan ulit ngayon. At ginamit namin yung height advantage nung huli thanks to Jay and Arwind.”   

San Miguel 79 – Hontiveros 20, Santos 15, Washington 11, Seigle 9, Cabagnot 8, Yeo 6, Peña 6, Miranda 2, Ildefonso 2, Tugade 0, Racela 0

Ginebra 78 – Caguioa 16, Tubid 15, Miller 11, Hatfield 10, Aquino 8, Wilson 5, Villanueva 5, Menk 4, Cortez 2, Helterbrand 2 






This is not related to the game last night but this is one of my favorite PBA post-game interviews ever: