Giants make it 2-to-nil

It was Game One all over again.

Purefoods Chunkee built a big margin early, squandered it on a vicious counterattack by Red Bull and had to regroup to make it two in a row in the Gran Matador Brandy PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven title playoff at the Astrodome last night.

The Giants got a huge lead, blew it and regained their bearing early this time to score a convincing 93-82 victory.

With the momentum and psychological edge now clearly on their side, the Giants go for a three-game-to-nil lead Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

"Again, we started well, they came back strong then we had our own comeback while shooting the ball well in the second half," said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

"The game will be played in spurts. The team which will get frustrated will lose the game," Gregorio added.

Marc Pingris scored a game-high 21 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds while James Yap made 23 points, Richard Yee 17 points and nine rebounds, Kerby Raymundo 12 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists and Noy Castillo 12 points to lead the Giants to the second straight win in the series.

Curiously, Jun Limpot was the only other Purefoods player who broke into the scoring column with eight.

individual award while playing for College of St. Benilde.

Another NCAA star, Gabriel Espinas, has also applied for the annual draft together with Philippine Christian U teammate Robert Sanz.

The two was the 1-2 punch of the Dolphins when they won their first ever men’s basketball championship in 2004, the same year when Espinas pulled off the rare feat of being named MVP and Rookie of the Year on the same season.      

 They also led PCU back to the NCAA Finals last year, but fell short against the Letran Knights.

At least three Fil-Ams are included in this year’s draft list — Robert Reyes, PBL MVP Joe Calvin DeVance and Kelly Williams.

But the league still has to scrutinize the documents the Fil-Ams submitted. All three are also scheduled to be interviewed by the commissioner himself.

The rest of the rookie applicants include Lewis Alfred Tenorio, Joseph Yeo, Mark Isip, Mark Magsumbol, Glenn Edward Perseveranda, Orvie Vidad, Angelus Raymundo, Jireh Ibanes, Ariel de Castro, Abraham Santos, Chico Lanete, Alfie Grijaldo, Ryan Cristobal, Don Dulay, Philip Butel, Al Vergara and Ernani Christopher Pacana.