Sophomore guard Willie Miller played with poise and confidence, delivering key baskets and keeping the Thunder intact under gnawing pressure in the fourth quarter of the match marred by numerous technical calls and two punching fouls resulting to the ejection of imports Tony Lang and Art Long.
Minus the two imports, Red Bull proved to be the better team, catching Coca-Cola atop the heap again with identical 4-1 win-loss cards.
San Miguel suffered its first loss in its last three games.
"We knew we had a tough game ahead of us going into this game. Maybe the desire to win carried us through," said Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao before voicing his opinion on the fracas that halted the game with 2:44 left in the third quarter.
Long almost went out of control, committing two technical fouls, including one on Noli Locsin in the third quarter that nearly fuelled full-blown riot.
In the heat of the commotion infront of the officials table, the San Miguel import threw a punch on his Red Bull counterpart. The proverbial cooler heads separated the two and the referees later threw them out of the game, saying both threw a punch.
A bench-emptying incident erupted moments later with both teams rushing to the Astrodome inside corridor where Long and Lang had another confrontation.Guiao later questioned the referees’ decision to eject his import. "My opinion of the matter was that Art Long did crazy things all night," he said.
understand why the referees had to play it safe, giving two punching fouls. Why not find the person who started it out, determine the real culprit," said Guiao.