Asi finally bails out Pals

ANTIPOLO — Mobiline finally won with Asi Taulava in its fold, carving out a 94-89 overtime victory over Tanduay last night to boost its quarterfinals bid in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup before a sellout crowd at the Ynares Sports Center here.

Winless in their last three games with the comebacking Taulava around, the Phone Pals managed to escape with the victory, their third in seven games, despite blowing a seven-point lead in the final 1:48 of regulation.

The Rhum Masters, who forged the extra period with an 87-87 deadlock, absorbed their fifth loss in seven games, actually their fourth in the last five games, and now face the difficult task of winning their last two games against Purefoods and Red Bull to safely reach the next round.

Taulava was at his best playing before a crowd of close to 8,000 as he led all Mobiline scorers with 43 points, 20 of them coming in the first half, a dozen in the third quarter, nine in the fourth and his last basket tying the game for the last time at 89-89 in the extra period.

Taulava, who finally got his clearance from the Justice Department a couple of weeks back, shot 13-of-20 from the field and had a superb 17-of-20 from the stripes. He added seven rebounds, two assists and seven blocks in 49 minutes of action.

Mobiline coach Louie Alas, in a post-game interview, was so happy that his charges finally got going since Taulava’s celebrated return to the PBA and kept his fingers crossed that they can sweep their last two games against Alaska and Sta. Lucia to hopefully make it to the Final Four.

"My players kept on asking me if we can ever get out of the three-game slump and I just told them not to give up because I’m not giving up on them," said Alas.

Todd Bernard also dished out a superb performance by scoring 12 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, the same as slotman Jerry Codiñera who chipped in 12 points aside from securing the shaded lane with his game-high 16 rebounds.

Kevin Freeman, the Tanduay import, waxed hot with 44 points. He had 15 in the fourth canto but was hardly a factor in the extra period, scoring his team's lone basket in the 3:31 mark.