YAP SIZZLES AS PUREFOODS TIES SERIES, 2-2
James Yap knows he won’t be around for Game 5 of Purefoods’ 2007-08 Smart PBA Philippine Cup championship series with Sta. Lucia Realty.
So he made sure there will be something to go back to when he returns.
With the prolific one-time league MVP scattering a conference-high 32 points, the Giants posted a 106-98 win over the Realtors Friday to level the best-of-seven series at two games apiece at the Araneta Coliseum.
Ten of Yap’s points came in the fourth quarter, four inside the last 2:03 that shattered the game’s last deadlock at 95 and pointed the way to a follow-up to their 118-107 win last Wednesday.
It was Yap’s highest scoring game since he put up 40 in last year’s Fiesta Cup wildcard phase and somewhat helped ease the sting of his absence on Sunday.
Yap was meted a one-game suspension and fined P20,000 for his foul on SLR’s Joseph Yeo in Game 3. He was initially assessed a flagrant foul penalty one but that was upgraded to a penalty two last Thursday by league officials upon review of the game tapes.
Purefoods has initially won an appeal to move the suspension from Friday to Sunday, although the PBA Board still has to decide on another appeal to have Yap serve it in the next conference.
Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio said his team is ready to play without Yap, even though it will be doing so for the first time in three years.
“We will go out and play, we will come out strong, with or without James. But definitely we will miss James,” he said, adding it is more important that they are definitely back in the series.
“It’s about fighting and surviving again,” he stated.
Actually, Sta. Lucia is also likely to miss one key player on Sunday.
Yeo was also slapped with a flagrant foul 2 for hacking a driving Noy Castillo in the last 17.4 seconds of the game and promptly ejected. He has been summoned to appear before PBA Commissioner Sonny Barrios Saturday morning.
Kerby Raymundo added 26 points and eight rebounds, Peter June Simon 17 and Roger Yap 12 points in a balanced offensive show that took away much of the limelight from SLR’s Kelly Williams, earlier named as the Best Player of the Conference.
Williams scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, complimenting Bitoy Omolon’s team-high 19 and Yeo’s 18.
Marlou Aquino and Dennis Miranda each had at least 12 points and the Realtors came back from a 51-61 halftime deficit and into the thick of things with a big 37-point third quarter that gave them an 88-83 lead.
All those, however, went for naught when SLR scored only 10 points on 3-of-17 field goal shooting compounded by seven of their total 22 turnovers in the fourth period.
After Omolon’s undergoal stab off Miranda’s ninth assist tied the count for the eighth and last time, Yap scored on two charities and followed up Simon’s own free throws with a lay-up to spark Purefoods’ windup.
Purefoods rewrote its scoring record in a half for the second straight game as Yap and Raymundo combined for 29 points while Simon and Yap each had at least 10 points coming off the bench, giving the Giants their 10-point halftime spread. They had 59 in the first half last Wednesday.
Sta. Lucia had not lost back-to-back games since last December, but appeared headed for certain defeat when it failed to take care of the ball in the first half alone, committing seven of its 11 in the first half right on the opening period.
The Realtors’ relatively high first half score was also slightly deceiving as only Marlou Aquino’s 11 points off the bench led the team in the first 24 minutes while the likes of Williams and Joseph Yeo struggled.
Not helping Sta. Lucia’s cause any was Dennis Espino being called for his third foul at the 7:55 mark of the second quarter and Williams following suit some three minutes later.
No such problems faced Purefoods, with Roger Yap highlighting the team’s romp with a buzzer-beating triple that banked in, helping pull the Giants away from a 56-51 count.
Otherwise, the only scary moment for Gregorio came when Raymundo and Marc Pingris each got slapped with a technical for excessive complaining after Raymundo was called for an offensive foul against Williams in the final 2:58 of the first quarter.
Source:pba.ph
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