MANILA, 15 December 2007 — Streaking home all alone, Kelly Williams took the long baseball-pitch like pass from Marlou Aquino. What Williams did after that was routine-like: slam dunk the ball tomahawk-style, his fellow Sta. Lucia Realtors jumping at the sidelines in celebration.
For this game, everything looked easy for the Realtors. For Red Bull, it was the other way around. Sta. Lucia conquered the team feared for its defense, limiting Red Bull to its lowest output in the conference after scoring an unexpected 104-78 cruise over the Bulls in the Smart-PBA Philippine Cup last night at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Ryan Reyes scored a career-high 26 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and collected four assists in a brilliant effort coming from a rookie while Nelbert Omolon, Williams and Dennis Espino tallied outputs in double figures.
“The final score didn’t reflect how tough the game was,” said Sta. Lucia coach Boyet Fernandez. “It’s always tough playing Red Bull, they’re physical, they’re quick. “But it was a good win for us because we moved closer to the teams there on top of the standings.”
By the looks of it, Sta. Lucia didn’t exert much effort thumping the team that has stunned everybody by occupying second spot with a line-up that has no real superstar.
The Realtors, who improved to 7-6 in a tie with Magnolia and Talk ‘N Text, led by double digits for most part of the contest, blew the game wide open in the fourth quarter and booked their third win in a row after victories over Alaska and defending champion Ginebra.
It was also the biggest win by the Realtors in the season-opening tournament, an outcome that came as a complete contrast to the result they had against the Gin Kings in their previous outing where they had to rely on Williams’ 14 fourth-quarter points and a fade-away jumper from Paolo Mendoza in the last four seconds to win, 79-78.
The Bulls dropped their fifth game in 13 matches but still hold second spot behind Purefoods’ 10-3 mark. The Giants play the Air21 Express today at the West Negros College Gym in Bacolod City .
If there was anything that was revealed in the game, it was Red Bull’s lack of offensive firepower.
Red Bull played without Cyrus Baguio again. The former slam dunk champion is still recovering from chicken pox, and his absence was felt throughout. Junthy Valenzuela led Red Bull with 14 points, Carlo Sharma had 12, and Leo Najorda and Topex Robinson each had 10. But Mick Pennisi, who scored a team-high 16 points in the Bulls’ 94-88 win over Magnolia last Saturday, was held to only five points.
Talk ‘N Text, meantime, showed how deep really its line-up is.
Losing Mac-Mac Cardona and Harvey Carey to ejections in the third quarter and Jay Washington to fouls in the fourth, the Phone Pals still had plenty of firepower left in them in beating first-round tormentor Welcoat, 99-96. Cardona and Carey were ejected with 2:21 remaining in the third period after a near free-for-all happened when Cardona committed a hard foul on Jojo Tangkay, who was dribbling his way to the basket.
Irked and obviously not a man who would easily back off, Tangkay approached Cardona and the two exchanged heated words before Carey came into the picture and pushed Tangkay to the ground.
Because of the hard foul, Cardona was slapped with technical and Carey another ‘T’ for the push. Both were thrown out, resulting in three flagrant fouls and six free throws for Tangkay, who sank five. In a wink of an eye, what stood as a 66-56 lead by the Phone Pals was whittled down to within 66-61, and Ryan Arana cut the deficit further with a lay-up 66-63 with 2:06 to go in the period.
