The badly-crippled Coca-Cola Tigers grabbed another game from the highly-favored Alaska Milk Aces via overtime last night to move in the threshold of what could become the biggest reversal in PBA history.
The Tigers jumped the gun on the Aces and held on under gnawing pressures, pulling off a nerve-wracking 62-60 overtime victory that gave them an improbable 2-1 lead in the Selecta All-Filipino Cup best-of-five title playoff.
Coach Chot Reyes and his amazing team has a chance to wrap it up either on Christmas day or on Friday.
"To go for the kill or to go for broke I don’t apply (this) to us because we’ve long been near death. Sumisipa-sipa na lang," said Reyes trying to downplay their chance to complete the win.
He thought their big start that gave them an early-20 point cushion was the turning point in their victory last night.
He also thought they enjoyed some breaks in the game, including a long bomb by John Arigo declared only a two-pointer by the referees with time down to 43 seconds in overtime. He saw it as a three-pointer which could have tied the count at 61-all.
Still, Alaska had a chance to win the game but Duremdes’ own three-point attempt rimmed out with two ticks left.
Rudy Hatfield pulled down the rebound and closed out the scoring with a free-throw off a desperation foul by Rob Duat.
"People were talking about our courage and character but I think another important thing that brought us here was teamwork," said Reyes.
"The guys are sincerely covering one another. And to me seeing these guys do that is the most satisfying. We have five new guys in the team and they hardly knew one another at the start of the season," he added.
Curiously, the Tigers led all the way after yielding the first three points of the game to the Aces. The Tigers led by as many as 20 points early on with the Aces starting flat.
The Aces threw bricks and hit only 19 percent from the field in the first quarter. The Tigers, on the other hand, enjoyed an impressive 61-percent shooting in the first 10 minutes of action for a 20-7 margin.
The Aces made a 13-4 run behind Rodney Santos, Don Allado and Ali Peek to close in a little at 20-31.
Hatfield and Poch Juinio, who had mediocre outings in Game Two, stepped up last night and paced the Tigers with a combined output of 33 points, 19 rebounds and three assists.