Giants, Kings try to level semis series

source: Wayon Galvez | mb.com.ph

James Yap, Purefood’s main offensive weapon, was held to eight free throws by San Miguel Beer last Wednesday – a fact not lost on Giants coach Ryan Gregorio.

“James probably went full throttle against Rain or Shine in Game 5; he didn’t have enough gas (in Game 1),” he said. “We really need James to step up for us and consistently score in order for us to compete and eventually win against San Miguel. If he scores eight points, then we’ll have problems.”

Gregorio, however, doesn’t want to pin the blame solely on Yap.

“Other players will have to step up. I know James knows that, he really needs to score and step up his offensive weapon. Hope we can will ourselves to victory in Game 2. We don’t want to dig a deeper hole, which might be hard for us to extricate,” he said.

The Giants, still drained from their five-game series against Rain or Shine, try to level their best-of-seven semifinal series against the Beermen at 5 p.m. this Friday in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at the Astrodome in Pasay City.

Yap, who was 0-of-8 from the field Wednesday, is expected to come strong after being bottled up by San Miguel’s defense. The former King Warrior poured 28 points against Rain or Shine in Game 5 last Sunday.

Six Beermen scored in double figures to typify the team’s balanced offense in Game 1, which they won, 99-83.

Jayjay Washington and Dondon Hontiveros led the Beermen with 17 points apiece, Arwind Santos chipped in 16, Denok Miranda had 15, and Danny Seigle added 10.

In the other semifinal match at 7:30 p.m., Alaska Milk guns for a repeat victory over Barangay Ginebra, although Aces coach Tim Cone expects it won’t be as easy as the opener.

The Aces shot 50 percent from the field and limited the Kings to 31-of-86 shooting. They also controlled the boards, 59-40.

Cone, however, is aware of what Ginebra can do.

“It’s a seven-game series for a reason. We know it’s going to be a long series. It’s going to be a tough series,” Cone said. “They took this first game to take a kind of a deep breath and they’ll start the series on Game 2, basically.”

“What this equates to winning the series? Probably it had very little to do it except the fact that we’re up and that’s all that counts. That’s all it means. Obviously we all know that Ginebra was down 0-1, then 0-2 in the last series,” he added.

Averaging just eight points this conference, Mark Caguioa sizzled with 23 points in Game 1 but failed to get support from teammates.

Games today (Astrodome, Pasay City)
5:00 p.m. — Purefoods vs San Miguel
7:30 p.m. — Alaska vs Ginebra