MANILA - Purefoods played with a lot of energy and sustained a good start with a steady outside shooting to turn back San Miguel Beer, 103-84, to level the best-of-seven semifinal round, 1-1, in the 35th PBA-KFC Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The Giants showed they have recovered from the tiring quarterfinals by out-hustling the Beermen and crowded Arwind Santos and Dondon Hontiveros with their tight defense to avenge an 83-99 setback in Game 1.
Raffi Reavis made his presence felt by finishing with a double-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks to lead the Giants’ strong comeback in the series.
Aside from Reavis, James Yap and KG Canaleta combined for 34 points to help Purefoods put up a 21-point lead with still 9:35 left in the fourth period.
Roger Yap connected with back-to-back triples to post the Giants biggest lead, 99-75, only 2:04 left in the match.
“We wanted to come up with the same effort. Luckily today we were able to play with tremendous energy. Good things happen to us when we made stops. It’s really nice to finally win against San Miguel,” said coach Ryan Gregorio of Giants, who snapped a three-game losing streak to the Beermen in the conference.
Danny Seigle and Arwind Santos tried to ignite a big run but their effort fell short as they could only reduce the deficit to 11 points, 81-70, still 7:06 to go.
That proved to be the Beermen’s last gasp for life as James Yap and Reavis came back to stretch the gap to 23 points, 96-73.
“We are coming back from fatigue definitely. We have rested our legs, rested our minds after the first game. And aided by the fact that Raffi (Reavis) played tremendous tonight. It’s going to be a very important game on Sunday,” added Gregorio.
Canaleta and James Yap settled with 17 points apiece, while Roger Yap had 15.