Thursday, November 22, 2007 Adducul saves Purefoods from Coke
MANILA - Pacesetter Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants squandered an early 19-point lead but found a savior in Rommel Adducul, who scored the winning shot in the dying seconds for a close 87-86 win over the Alaska Aces yesterday in the resumption of the 2007 Smart-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The 6-foot-5 Adducul received a pass from the heavily covered Kerby Raymundo to score the marginal goal from under the basket for the Giants’ eighth win against a lone setback.
“I have not seen the last play, all I saw was the ball at Rommel Adducul’s hands. But anyway, Alaska came up with a solid defense that’s why we were struggling in the crucial stretch,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.
The Giants, coming off a stunning 74-87 first loss to Red Bull in Tacloban City on Nov. 17, were behind, 85-86, with only six seconds remaining when the referee called a jumpball between Brandon Cablay and John Ferriols that resulted in the final play of the Giants.
“I want to know how the referees can justify things like that (jumpball). I don’t know what we are going to do now,” said Alaska coach Tim Cone, who protested the referee’s failure to call an alleged dribbling violation over the last play of Raymundo.
Protest
Cone, whose Aces dropped to solo fifth with a 4-4 slate, is putting the game under protest.
The Giants, with James Yap, Raymundo and Cablay in the starting five, played a near flawless game at the start en route to taking a big 16-8 upperhand, going into the 4:35 of the first period.
“It’s going to be much more tougher from here on now,” said Gregorio.
Cablay, an able replacement for the injured Roger Yap, fired two triples and the 6-foot-5 Raymundo added two straight baskets in the early surge by the Giants, who posted a hot 7-0 start, their best since the 1992 All-Filipino Conference.
Solid defense
Purefoods displayed a more solid defense and a fluid offense as it held the Aces to only four points for six minutes to close the opening quarter at 30-12, thanks to Peter Jun Simon. Simon contributed two triples for a high 50 percent clip by the Giants.
James, the 2005 MVP, opened the second period with a triple and Cablay followed suit in the return play to establish the Giants biggest lead, 36-17, still nine minutes to play.
But coach Tim Cone of the Aces sent in Jeffrey Cariaso, Reynel Hugnatan and Wellie Miller, who responded with an 8-0 run to cut the gap to only 14, 46-32, at the end of the half.
Meanwhile, multi-titled coach Norman Black was nominated by one of the PBA Governors to be one of the candidates for the tough position of commissioner.
But the current Blue Eagles coach begged-off due to his commitment with Ateneo, which he said he has a standing contract until 2009.
This was announced by PBA oficer-in-charge Sonny Barrios in a press briefing yesterday.
Barrios also said that even Carlo Singson of NBA-Asia, based in Hong Kong, likewise withdrew from the race citing his commitment with the biggest professional basketball league in the world.
The withdrawal of both Black and Singson left the PBA board with only four candidates for the position—lawyer Chito Salud, Lambert Ramos, SBP-BAP executive-director Patrick Gregorio and Bert Manlapaz. (FCC)
