San Miguel, Sta. Lucia Take 1-0 Lead in Quarterfinals

The San Miguel Beermen survived a furious rally by the Barangay Ginebra Kings to eke out a 78-77 win Wednesday night (January 7, 2009) in Game One of their best-of-three quarterfinals series in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup played at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, the Philippines.

Unheralded rookie Bonbon Custodio scored crucial baskets and made the right plays in the final minutes of the game to bail San Miguel out of trouble after Ginebra made a 15-4 run to erase an 11-point San Miguel lead, tying the game at 72-all with 3:38 left.

The Kings held the Beermen scoreless for more than four minutes in that period before Custodio’s layup put San Miguel back in front 74-72.

After Billy Mamaril put Ginebra ahead 77-76 with a 19-footer, Custodio shone again as he fed Danny Seigle for an easy basket to put San Miguel back up, 78-77.

After the two teams traded missed three-point shots, the Kings had the chance to steal the game but Jayjay Helterbrand missed his shot due to Custodio’s tight defense.

Lordy Tugade finished with 15 points and Dondon Hontiveros added 14 and 10 rebounds for San Miguel.

Mamaril scored a conference-high 22 points to lead Ginebra.

In the other quarterfinals match played at the jampacked Araneta Coliseum, the defending champion Sta. Lucia Realtors routed the Rain or Shine Elasto Pa inters, 101-84, to take a 1-0 lead in their own series.

Nelbert Omolon scored a game-high and personal conference-high 30 points to lead the Realtors.

Joseph Yeo also starred for Sta. Lucia, knocking in 12 of his 26 points in the third quarter, including a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the three-point arc.

The Realtors were razor-sharp on both ends of the court all throughout the game, jumping the guns on the Painters right from the start. The Realtors shot 35-of-79 from the field for an impressive 44 percent clip.

In their post-season debut in the league, the Painters appeared lost as they shot a miserable 27-of-81 (33 percent) from the field.

Rain or Shine’s woes were compounded when top draft pick Gabe Norwood was ejected for an unsportsmanlike play in the third quarter.

Sta. Lucia now needs to beat Rain or Shine again on Friday to advance into the semifinals.

Realtors head coach Boyet Fernandez attributed the victory to his team’s defensive intensity. “Our defense stepped up tonight,” he said after the game. “Our goal was to contain and limit Gabe ( Norwood ) and Sol (Mercado) in the first half and try to limit Rain or Shine’s outside shooting. I thought we really did a good job on those targets.”

 Jay-R Reyes led Rain or Shine with 16 points on a 6-of-13 shooting while top rookie Sol Mercado scattered 13, mostly on free throws since he was just 2-of-13 from the field.

Norwood , the much-hyped Fil-American rookie, managed to score just nine points. His frustration became evident when he threw the ball at Omolon after the Sta. Lucia forward hit his head in a bid to steal the ball. Norwood was called for a flagrant foul-penalty 2 which would mean an automatic one-game suspension depending on the results of an evaluation to be conducted by the PBA Technical staff.

Yeo, Mercado and Ryan Arana, who rushed in when the incident took place, were slapped with technical fouls in the bench-emptying incident which happened at 5:55 mark of the third period and with the Realtors ahead by 18 points, 65-47.

Yeo and Omolon made five technical free throws at the resumption of play. Yeo then drained a trey to pad Sta. Lucia’s lead to 73-47, with 5:39 remaining the third.

At the end of the third quarter, Sta. Lucia’s lead had ballooned to 85-62.

When play resumed in the fourth period, the final score was the only issue left unsettled.