Welcoat claims PBL crown

Welcoat Paints made good its vow to sweep Ana Water Dispenser last night, withstanding a tough challenge put up by Paolo Mendoza and his teammates to complete a double-championship in the Philippine Basketball League in the season.

The Paintmasters nipped the gritty Water Dispensers, 58-56, in a game marred by a bizarre ending, crowning themselves the second Yakult-PBL Challenge champions before a huge crowd at the Makati Coliseum last night.

Also the first Yakult-PBL Challenge champions, the Paintmasters scored a big grandslam of sort although the Water Dispensers refused to finish the contest, conceding the victory while questioning a crucial call with still four-tenths of a second left in the game.

In one stretch, the Water Dispensers even threatened to walk out of the playing court when the referees ruled out what they thought was a three-pointer by Mendoza plus a bonus shot with Ana Water trailing at 56-58.

But the referees called a foul on Yancy de Ocampo before Mendoza could launch his shot with the table officials affirming the decision following a series of slow-motion replays of the contested play.

Sensing the futility of their protest, the Water Dispensers decided not to return to the court with coach Jimmy Mariano going to the Welcoat bench to congratulate coach Junel Baculi.

"We didn't finish the game because we want them to know that we're protesting the decision," said Mariano.

"Tama naman ang tawag. Pero kahit ituloy, kami pa rin ang mananalo dahil mahihirapan na silang tumira pa," said Baculi, whose wards ran away with 65-55 and 83-71 victories in the first two games of the best-of-five series.

Backup slotman Jun Carmona emerged as the unlikely hero for Welcoat as the former Perpetual Help mainstay delivered big baskets in the fourth quarter, including a side jumper that broke the 56-all count.

Earlier, Red Bull pulled off a 64-61 squeaker over Blu to win third place honors.

The Energy Kings were ahead by only one at 62-61 when Bacani intercepted a crucial Blu throw-in then scored on a breakaway layup sending the Red Bull crowd in the gallery to a frenzied celebration at the buzzer.

The victory gave the Energy Kings some solace as they salvaged second runner-up honors after a failed bid to get a crack at the crown in their farewell tourney in the league.

"It was a sweet win for us, no doubt, as everybody knew we wanted to go to the next level (the PBA) at least with a third-place trophy in this tourney," said Red Bull coach Gil Lumberio.

Davonn Harp came up with another double-double job with 17 points and 12 rebounds but Bacani emerged Red Bull's biggest hero with his steal off Francis Sanz with the game on the line in the last 3.1 seconds of play. The FEU ace in the UAAP wound up with 12 points, four steals and three assists.

Red Bull also drew a solid game from Kerby Raymundo but couldn't ward off Blu easily with the Detergent Kings pulling one big game together.

Blu hung tough throughout, yielding the game only on Bacani's steal in the closing seconds.

Meanwhile, Ana Water Dispenser hotshot Paolo Mendoza emerged the runaway winner of the Most Valuable Player plum.

Mendoza, who averaged 20.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists, garnered 1751 MVP points to Jojo Manalo's 1137 points, Marvin Ortiguerra's 1101, Yancy de Ocampo's 1026 and Renren Ritualo's 899. The five players composed the Mythical Five.

Rounding up the top 10 were Batang Red Bull's rookie slotman Kerby Raymundo (993), Ana's Allan Gamboa (945), Blu Detergent's Melchor Crisostomo (869) and Ernesto Billones (716) and Welcoat's Anton Villoria (662).

Aside from gaining a slot in the Mythical Five, De Ocampo also won the Most Improved award.

Other awardees were Chowking's Roger Yap, Jr., the Rookie of the Year, and teammate Joel Co, the league's Three-Point King with 26 triples made in 69 attempts. -