Thursday, January 25, 2007 Hontiveros lifts Beermen over RB Barakos By Jade S. Violeta Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE San Miguel Beermen drew first blood in their best-of-seven semifinals series against the Red Bull Barakos after they inked a 114-109 come-from-behind win yesterday in the 2006-2007 PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Talk ’N Text and Ginebra were still playing at press time last night.
Cebuano Dondon Hontiveros played the hero’s role for the Beermen as the former University of Cebu stalwart scored 13 of his 18 total points in the final quarter to engineer the Beermen’s comeback.
Hontiveros finished the game with 18 markers on top of four assists but his five-out-of-six treys was what made the difference in the game, when the Beermen trailed by 11 points in the third canto.
Danny Seigle also doled out an excellent performance for the Beermen as he conked in a total of 21 points, while Danny Ildefonso added 18 points and nine rebounds for San Miguel, which extended their winning streak to eight games since November of last year.
Close fight
After a closely fought first half, with Batang Red Bull leading by two at the end of the first and second quarters, the boys of Barako coach Yeng Guiao suddenly broke away in the third canto and put up an 88-77 edge in the last two minutes of the quarter after Enrico Villanueva capped a furious Red Bull run with a twinner.
But the Beermen managed to trim the gap to just six points, 82-88, entering the final canto.
San Miguel turned things in their favor at the start of the final phase with Hontiveros’ successive treys capping the game-breaking San Miguel rally.
