MANILA, 13 December 2007 — They may not have the best record, and certainly not out of the woods.
But these Coca-Cola Tigers may yet have one of their best holiday seasons ever.
The ball club that was the joke of many before has become a serious contender in one abrupt twist, claiming its third victory in four games since Asi Taulava came to town, this time beating powerhouse Magnolia 114-108 in the Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
“To tell you frankly,” said coach Binky Favis, “I haven’t found the formula for our success. It’s just the players playing together and not giving up.” Indeed, the Tigers roared back to life when everything seemed dead and hopeless. Magnolia had built a commanding 15-point lead with 8:44 left in the fourth quarter and, at the way they were playing, defeat looked a far-fetched reality.
But Taulava and Coca-Cola’s prized find — Ronjay Buenafe (career-high 23 points) — wouldn’t allow the Beverage Masters to just get away with murder.
Instead, the duo initiated a big rally — a 19-1 blast to be exact — and the rookie Buenafe capped that with back-to-back triples both from the corner as the Tigers seized the upper hand at 103-100 with 4:02 left in the game.
Magnolia then had its very first field goal on a basket from LA Tenorio, but Coca-Cola wasn’t finished just yet. The Tigers kept on pounding and had a 6-1 run (109-102) mostly on foul shots and a key basket by the 2003 MVP Taulava.
It was only at this point that the Beverage Masters woke up. Danny Seigle, silent all night with only 10 points, and Lordy Tugade each had threes against a split from the line by Buenafe as the game got interesting anew, 110-108 with 22 seconds left to play.
But Alex Cabagnot got fouled and nailed down both charities, and Tenorio missed his triple attempt before Aries Dimaunahan was also fouled and added two more charities to finally seal the outcome with 11.1 seconds remaining.
“We know we would make a run,” said Favis when asked over their feelings when the Beverage Masters erected that 15-point lead. The kind of effort the Tigers showed in a game they were on the verge of losing clearly comes in contrast to the ones they exerted in the first round or before they acquired Taulava for Ali Peek and next year’s first round pick.
These days, the Tigers hate losing, a complete turnaround for a team that owns the longest losing streak in the conference (8), a franchise worst.
In claiming their third straight victory and fourth win overall, the Tigers have created a wider gap over the Welcoat Dragons in the race for which team makes it to the wild card. Coca-Cola improved to 4-8 (win-loss), with the Dragons still at the bottom of the 10-team standings with a 3-9 record.
Taulava finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in perhaps his best all-around game this season-opening tournament while Mark Telan had a similarly impressive stint of 13 points and 16 rebounds for Coca-Cola.
Magnolia, one of the teams fancied to make it all the way into the Finals, suffered its second consecutive defeat and dropped to 7-6 for solo fourth spot behind Alaska , which took solo third place after beating the sloppy Air21 Express, 100-89.
Reigning MVP Willie Miller scored 21 points, Sonny Thoss had 18 points and five rebounds while John Ferriols collected 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Aces, who booked their eighth win in 13 outings.
The Express went down their second straight defeat and 5-7 overall to remain at seventh and still in danger of going through the dangerous wild card stage, the phase of the tournament where only one team survives.
