go go go san mig coffee for finals game WITH three flicks of his wrists halfway in the third quarter, James Yap took command of a Grand Slam bid that was slowly spinning out of control and sent it back on course. Facing a pressure zone defense that had them tied up and trailing by six, Yap wedged a three-point shot between a pair of one-handed jumpers and San Mig Super Coffee went on to oust Talk ‘N Text, 93-87, in a do-or-die Game 5 Friday night in the PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Yap had 25 points with 5 triples, Marqus Blakely 21 with 16 rebounds, Mark Barroca 15 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and low-posting Joe Devance a career first triple-double (11 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) as the Mixers overwhelmed the Tropang Texters down the stretch to advance to the Finals of the conference which they won last year against Petron Blaze. They will meet the winner of a similar sudden death between Rain or Shine and Alaska Saturday when the best-of-5 championship series starts Tuesday. “The dream is still alive, remarkably,” said San Mig coach Tim Cone, who is looking to steer the Mixers towards a three-conference sweep the way he did the Alaska 18 years ago. For most of the first half, however, the dream was anything but sweet as Talk ‘N Text kept up the pressure with the zone, denying the Mixers’ their vaunted inside game. It even took a nightmarish turn when Paul Harris nailed a 3-pointer and Danny Seigle scored inside to start the second half, giving the Texters a 43-37 lead. But then came Yap with his seven straight points, blasting the Texters out of the comforts of the zone and into a straight man-to-man defense in apparent panic. Big mistake, it turned out. After an exchange of 3-pointers between Harris, who played nearly 48 minutes, and Blakely on a buzzer-beating heave, the Mixers stormed the TNT fort with a 13-4 run, Marc Pingris, Blakely and Devance shredding the defense with open impunity. That forced the Texters back to the zone but not after PJ Simon had buried a long 3 to make it 60-50 with two minutes left in the third quarter. And by then, the Mixers have gained the confidence and the patience to work the ball around to find the open man. “They blew us out with the zone in Game 4,” said Cone. “It’s good James was on fire and kept us alive. But we knew that if we kept seeing the zone, we’d get better at finding ways to attack it. And we did.” Of Yap, who hit his fifth triple with 3:17 remaining just before the Texters went on a 3-point shooting binge that cut the deficit to five, Cone said: “I’ve been saving him all conference for moments like these.” Having exhausted practically all means to overhaul San Mig’s growing lead in the fourth, TNT resorted to a little Hack-A-Shaq, fouling Blakely in succession in the last two minutes to gain possession. Blakely, 5 of 14 from the line overall, did miss four in a row. But he converted two with 1:36 to go and TNT came no closer than four points the rest of the way. Harris gutted it out with 18 of his 40 points in the last 12 minutes. But he was a spent force in the end as no TNT player had more than 7 points after him in the fourth. “We got through an incredible team to do it,” said Cone whose team won Games 1 and 2 before dropping the next two matches. “They handled us pretty well for two games, and frankly, I don’t know how we won it tonight. It wasn’t the most best played down-the-stretch game we’ve had and I’m a little disappointed, but you can’t argue the result.” (WJRHT) The scores: San Mig Coffee 93 — Yap 25, Blakely 21, Barroca 17, Devance 11, Pingris 10, Simon 7, Sanggalang 2, Taha 0, Melton 0, Reavis 0, Hoilstein 0, Mallari 0, Gaco 0, Maliksi 0, Matias 0. Talk N Text 87 — Harris 40, De Ocampo 13, Castro 11, Seigle 8, Espiritu 7, Fonacier 4, Williams 2, Rob Reyes 2, Alapag 0, Carey 0, Baclao 0, Canaleta 0, Ryan Reyes 0, Aban 0. Quarters” 21-20; 37-38; 62-55; 93-87.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 00:18:41 +0000
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