Espinosa trey lifts Hotdogs

Tonyboy Espinosa found the perfect time to break out of a long shooting slump from the arc, firing a three-point shot at crunch time as Purefood sustained its winning run at the resumption of the Gran Matador PBA Fiesta Cup last night at the Araneta Coliseum.

Espinosa’s three-pointer with 13.9 seconds left in the clock proved to be the deciding basket as the Hotdogs topped the Barangay Ginebra Kings, 92-87, to gain a share of the lead with the idle San Miguel Beermen with identical 4-1 win-loss records.

"Basta hindi ako nag-hesitate dahil kailangan talagang itira," said Espinosa on his crucial trey atop the key coming off a kick-off pass from Kerby Raymundo who ran into a gang of Ginebra defenders at the paint.

Espinosa has been struggling beyond the arc, going 0-of-14 in the tourney and 0-of-18 dating back to Game Two of their best-of-three quarterfinals showdown with Shell last conference when he faced the must-shoot situation with the shot-clock winding down to its final seconds and the Hotdogs holding a precarious 88-87 lead.

A poor 22-percent three-point shooter, Espinosa bucked the pressure to bail the Hotdogs out of trouble.

"Tsamba lang yon. Hindi naman marunong mag-three points yan," ABC-5 sportscaster-courtside reporter Jason Webb hollered in jest while his former La Salle teammate Espinosa was being interviewed by the sportswriters during post-game huddle.

"Huwag kang maingay, biggest shot of the game nga raw sabi ni coach," said Espinosa.

The shot iced Purefoods’ fourth straight victory — a streak the team had never achieved the last two years.

"Things are looking good for us. It’s been a long while since we won four straight games. And imagine we beat the league’s best team in the last two conferences," said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio on their victory over the reigning All-Filipino and Reinforced Conference champions.

James Yap, Jun Limpot, Jun Peter Simon and import Antonio Smith also played big for the Hotdogs as they dealt the Kings a second loss in four starts.

Yap matched his career-high 24 points, Smith made 19 points and 16 rebounds while Limpot and Simon combined for 22 points and five rebounds.

Up against his former teammates, Eddie Elisma worked extra hard and fired a game-high 32 points that went with 12 rebounds, two blocks and one assist.

Elisma scored all of Ginebra’s last 14 points, including a tip-in of his own miss with 37.4 ticks left pulling the Kings within one at 88-87.

After Espinosa made it 91-87, Aris Dimaunahan took matters into his hands, missing a three-point attempt as the Kings eventually yielded the game.