Purefoods beat San Miguel in Game 4, series tied

source: gmanews.tv

Purefoods raced to a big 22-point first quarter lead and then weathered a big San Miguel rally in a 97-84 win Wednesday night that evened their KFC-PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.

James Yap played his best game of the best-of-seven duel by topscoring for 24 points, 10 of which came in the fourth period that helped defuse a searing Beermen rally.

Marc Pingris added 15 markers while Roger Yap came a rebound short of registering a triple-double with 15 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds in the win that allowed the Giants to equal the series at two games apiece.

The tie-breaking Game 5 is set Friday also at the Araneta Coliseum.

“It’s been a game of adjustments. We need the other players to get involved on offense other than James and Kerby (Raymundo). We made some antidotes, and the great thing is it worked," said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

“Now it’s just a best-of-3 and we think we have a legitimate crack (at the Finals)."

The Giants led by as many as 36-14 in the opening quarter following a 17-2 run.

But the Beermen countered back in the fourth and came to within 74-71 with 10 minutes remaining.

Purefoods retaliated with a 16-4 assault led by James Yap to practically seal the victory with a 90-74 advantage, time down to its last 4:27.

The Beermen shot a poor 38.3 percent from the field (26-of-67). Their starters, too, were heavily outscored by Purefoods’, 79-44.

“We can’t play this way. We’re giving up 48 percent shooting when we know that we have been holding our opponents to below 40 throughout the conference," said SMB coach Siot Tanquingcen. “We just have to make sure we have the better commitment and better communication (in Game 5)."

Danny Ildefonso came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, while Jay Washington contributed 14 points. Arwind Santos poured in 11 points and the same number of rebounds. – GMANews.TV

The Scores:

Purefoods 97 - Yap J. 24, Pingris 15, Yap R. 15, Raymundo 13, Reavis 12, Maierhofer 8, Simon 5, Artadi 4, Adducul 2, Allado 0.

San Miguel 84 - Ildefonso 17, Washington 14, Villanueva 13, Santos 11, Hontiveros 10, Custodio 6, Miranda 6, Pena 4, Pennisi 3, Holper 0, Cortez 0, Racela 0.

Quarterscores: 36-15, 53-44, 74-67, 97-84.