Hotdogs storm past Beermen, keep lead

With Purefoods facing imminent danger at endgame, Derrick Brown took over and turned things around as the Hotdogs swept past the San Miguel Beermen, 72-70, in their tupsy-turvy duel last night in the Samsung PBA Governors Cup at the Makati Coliseum.

Brown scored 16 of his game-high 26 points in the last quarter, including two crucial free throws off an interception in the closing seconds to highlight a mighty comeback by the Hotdogs.

The Hotdogs overcame a nine-point deficit, 59-68, in the last four minutes of play on sheer guts and thrust themselves alone in the lead anew with a 5-1 win-loss card.

"Definitely, this is our toughest game thus far in the tournament. We struggled throughout the first three quarters of play but when we needed the (defensive) stops in the end, those we got," said acting Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio as they stopped San Miguel’s streak, dealing the Beermen their first loss in their last three games and their fourth in six games in all.

"My hats off to Derrick Brown. Entering the final quarter, I told him it’s time to switch the button on, and he did," Gregorio added.

True enough, Brown went to work in the payoff quarter, outscoring the entire San Miguel team, 16-13, in the period and, thus, saving the Hotdogs from losing their grip of the lead.

San Miguel actually led by as many as 13 points, 57-44, in the third quarter with Boybits Victoria finding his range and burying four triples in that period.

The Beermen were still comfortably ahead at 68-59 before Brown went berserk, hitting four straight baskets to bring the Hotdogs back in the game with still 3:34 left in the clock.

Leonard White pushed Purefoods upfront at 69-68 with two charities off a foul by Mario Bennett but San Miguel regained the upperhead at 70-69 as Lamont Strother converted a tough fallaway jumper to beat the shotclock buzzer with time down to 1:36.

It appeared San Miguel had won the game when the Hotdogs muffed two crucial attempts and the Beeermen stayed in the lead going into the final 40 seconds of the contest.

But the Hotdogs would not raise the white flag.

A pressing defense forced Dwight Lago to fumble a crucial inbound and the Hotdogs cashed in on it with Brown hitting two free throws off a foul by Strothers with 39 ticks left.

The Beermen eventually yielding the game with Strothers, Victoria and Bennett missing a field-goal attempts each in the dying seconds. Meanwhile, the tournament goes out-of-town anew today with Shell and the Hapee Philippine Team clashing at 6 pom. at the CEU Centrodome in Malolos Bulacan.