Chunkee Giants snap Express run

The Air21 Express have scored two giant-size upsets on the way to the San Mig Coffee PBA Fiesta Cup Final Four but might need to dig deeper into their bag of tricks to pull the rug from under the real Giants.

Marquin Chandler matched his conference-high 46 points and the Purefoods Chunkee Giants came back from a 35-day layoff with a 94-89 repulsing of the Express at the start of their best-of-seven semifinals showdown at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Chandler went 18-of-29 from the field and 9-of-12 from the stripe and pulled down 16 rebounds in a hulking performance that propelled the Giants to victory in their first game after topping the double-round classification phase.

"Our situation was so much better than them in this game. We’re hungry to play a game while Air21 was very tired, having played three games in three days," said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

"Chandler had his best offensive game but we can’t rely on him anytime. They will surely be ready for him Wednesday and our other players have to be more involved in our game," Gregorio also said.

Chandler dominated the Express practically throughout the contest, scattering 39 points in the first three quarters of play and stringing up seven crucial points at the finish.

The former San Jose State hitman made six points in a decisive 11-to-nothing run that erased Air21’s 87-81 lead and shoved Purefoods ahead to stay at 92-87 with time down to 1:02.

The Giants got a big break in the contest when the referees didn’t eject Chandler who wrestled Gary David and triggered a near fracas with 2:10 left in the third quarter.

Both Chandler and David were assessed a technical foul on that incident in the game marked with eight technical fouls.

Worse for the Express, they lost a key player early in the game when Ronald Tubid, averaging 7.6 points a game, suffered a sprained ankle in the first quarter.

"That’s (Tubid’s exit) huge. Tubid can singlehandedly pump up his team. He can come out and make a huge difference for his team," said Gregorio of the spitfirish Air21 slasher who made a big impact on the Express’ conquests of the San Miguel Beermen in the wildcard round and of the Talk n Text Phone Pals in the quarterfinals.

Actually, the Giants also played hurt with injuries to James Yap and James Artadi. Purefoods is down to an 11-man local lineup with the release of Mike Hrabak to Red Bull and Eddie Laure to Coca-Cola.

Despite the early exit of Tubid, the Express put up a whale of a fight, unleashing an 8-0 run to surge ahead at 87-81 only to sag and collapse in the homestretch. The team was outscored by Purefoods, 2-13, in the last four minutes of play.

Down by three at 89-92, the Express still had a chance to tie the game but deadshot Renren Ritualo couldn’t shake off James Yap and Wynne Arboleda was forced to take the shot which went awry.

Earlier, Arboleda had another wild shot and a passing error.