In yet another amazing display of resiliency, firepower and Grade A offense-- both teams reached the 100 mark anew with the Tigers coming back in the final two minutes to pull the rug from under the hapless E-Painters, 110-108.
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| ISA na lang para sa "Bagong Ginebra" |
Credit has to go to JVee Casio (25 points) who carried the fight for the Tigers alongside rookie classmate Marcio Lassiter (19 points, 11 rebounds) and the Bataan Bomber (28 points). The Tigers' fearsome perimeter players pretty much shot their way back into the game, while there was an obvious tactical error on the part of the E-Painters head coach Yeng Guiao.
Jireh Ybanes, once heralded to be a potential David stopper but never really used in the series, came in to give the E-Painters a new look and dropped an easy 13 points. Another David stopper, Ryan Arana, contributed 15 points of his own while playing solid defense. Both guys however, sat in favor of the inconsistent Ronjay Buenafe who bungled his chance to take back the lead in the closing seconds with the most God awful, "no chance in hell" lay-up against heavy traffic ever.
It pretty much spoiled a great JayR Quinahan rising (he's been taken out of the limelight the previous games) and another double digit effort from Larry Rodriguez.
Honestly, all biases aside (RoS fan here), the E-Painters cannot win this series the way it's going.
The young squad of coach Yeng has been suckered into playing the frenetic, uptempo style of the Tigers which also spelled the early exit of the B-Meg Llamados a series ago. Normally, this style doesn't win games because teams who employ it are bound to shoot themselves in the foot-- "live by the 3, die by the 3."
But, with Casio, Lassiter, David and even Will Antonio, Rudy Lingganay, Celino Cruz and Sean Anthony at the helm- the Tigers have the shooters to pretty much survive in-game shooting slumps. When someone's cold, someone else shoots. Simple as that.
Their weakness, which is at the post, is not as exposed because they have turned this series into a guard's game.
On the opposite end, Guiao has pretty much allowed his team, led by the young Paul Lee, to play at the same pace which doesn't suit their overall strength.
They have a shooter in Jeffrei Chan, but unlike the Tigers' hitmen, Chan does his best work off the ball while the offense sets up. Paul Lee is also a great halfcourt creator. Ditto with slashers Ryan Arana and Jireh Ybanes.
Then there's the bigs, Beau Belga, Quinahan, Rodriguez, Jervy Cruz, Ronnie Matias- all of which do their best work when things are slowed down.
Defensively, the Tigers' don't have a deep enough big man rotation to challenge the E-Painters. Nor do the Tigers have great half court defenders other than Antonio and Lassiter.
If the pace keeps going this way and the E-Painters don't try to at least slow it down, the Tigers will march on into the Finals in what feels like forever for the Bataan Bomber.
