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Saturday, January 28, 2006
Ritualo on Air21 show
Ren-ren Ritualo established a new career-high as he towed Air21 Express to a lopsided 101-87 victory over the Purefoods Chunkee Giants in Game 3 of their best-of-seven semifinals series in the Philippine Basketball Association Fiesta Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
Ritualo, chosen the Best Player of the Game, registered a 9-of-17 clip from beyond the arc on the way to finishing the game with 40 points, a new career high. He also grabbed five rebounds to lead his team to victory, which cut down Purefoods’ series lead to 2-1.
In the nightcap, Red Bull posted a 2-1 series lead over Ginebra after a 95-83 victory in Game 3. It was the second consecutive win for the Barkos after losing Game 1 of the series.
Rookie Larry Fonacier and import James Penny played big throughout and came up with clutch plays that eventually bailed the team out of trouble.
Fonacier finished with a career-best 22 points, improving his previous high of 14, while Penny wound up with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Enrico Villanueva also had a double-double game with 18 points and 11 rebounds with Cyrus Baguio adding 16 points.
3-pointers
The Giants stayed only in the game in the first half before the Express, with Ritualo sinking treys whenever and wherever, suddenly pulled away starting in the third canto, which ended with an 88-61 edge for the Express.
Ritualo’s last two consecutive treys at the 7:14 mark of the final period moved the Express to 99-73 and from thereon there was no looking back for the boys of Air21 coach Bo Perasol.
Ritualo’s 40 is the most by any local in the tournament and the most by any local since Barangay Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa also had 40 in an 83-76 win over Sta. Lucia April 6 last year also during the 2005 Fiesta Conference.
Ritualo, the 2002 Rookie of the Year, also became the first local player in the league’s 31-year history to have four games in a career with at least eight triples in each of those games. It was actually’s Ritualo’s third time to score nine triples in a game and he also had eight in another.
Perasol said the victory was a testament to his teams ability to compete against the toughest in the league.
“Even when we were down 0-2 we believed we can still turn things around. All we have to do is to make mature decisions in the endgame and at the same time just play with our instincts, “ said the Air 21 coach. (JSV with PBA media bureau)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 28, 2006 issue)
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