MANILA: San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen was man enough to admit that his Beermen underachieved in the eliminations of the Philippine Cup, that playing in the wild card phase was no place for his team to be in.
He got past that, and in the process, will be ranged against another side he is expected to easily beat.
But not if you listen to him talk.
“Don’t let coach Jong (Uichico of Barangay Ginebra) fool you,” Tanquingcen told scribes Sunday night, moments after a 105-86 victory over Air21 that advanced the Beermen to the quarterfinals of the season-opening tournament against the crowd darlings.
“Let’s face it, no one expected us to be here (in the wild card phase),” he said. “But now that we (advanced), I think we must always play to the best of our abilities, especially against Ginebra.
“They (Gin Kings) may be missing some of their players, but they are still strong,” he emphasized.
It was San Miguel, though, which showed superior firepower on Sunday night, manhandling Air21 on all fronts, especially in the fourth period where the Beermen were near perfect and the Express were in complete tatters.
The Beermen made all but one of four triple attempts in the final frame and 10-of-16 tries from the field in a searing wind-up that had the Express practically scrounging to get back in the game.
Air21 actually had a shot at turning things around, ending the third period down by just nine points.
But San Miguel’s 59% shooting from the floor and a defensive ploy that worked on Air21’s celebrated guns helped finish the job, as the Express were a horrid 27.9% from the field in that span.
“We knew that, coming into the game, we were up against a team that had even more offensive talent than we do,” Tanquingcen said.
And it worked.
Though Gary David did break loose from that defensive noose to score 31 points and Arwind Santos fired 20, the other players usually relied upon by coach Bo Perasol were effectively silenced.
Wynne Arboleda, like he did in the final two games of last season’s Fiesta Cup championship series where the Express blew a 3-2 lead, scored just seven, and Cyrus Baguio, the high-flyer brought in from also-ran Red Bull, was good for just five markers. Lordy Tugade and Dondon Hontiveros topscored for San Miguel with 18 points each, and Danny Seigle and flashy neophyte Bonbon Custodio added 16 apiece.
San Miguel scored 30 points in the final quarter and 57 for the last two periods, clearly the story of the contest.
The game, watched by a modest-sized crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, took a heated turn late in the second period when Danny Seigle was opened up in the right cheekbone after Santos drilled him with a wayward elbow.
That came after Seigle had completed a three-point play on the other end, also over Santos, for a 41-31 lead. The free throw awarded Hontiveros for a technical foul on Santos gave the Beermen their biggest lead of the half. And it was all San Miguel from there, as the Express came no closer than two points, 55-53, before Mick Pennisi and Hontiveros drained a triple each to restore control for San Miguel.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Duremdes inked a deal with Coca-Cola to continue coaching the Tigers at least for the Fiesta Cup that opens on Feb. 28. Though no amount in the deal was disclosed to the covering press, the development speaks well for the career of the former MVP, who took over the Tigers four games into the tournament and finished with a 6-9 card.
