Young Tigers smother Giants

Coca-Cola followed up its stirring conquest of Fiesta Cup titlist Red Bull by whipping reigning champion Purefoods Chunkee, 92-77, last night in the Talk n Text PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Drawing tremendous boost from their youth brigade, the Tigers fashioned out another huge win following back-to-back defeats to the Alaska Milk Aces and the Welcoat Dragons.

With the two victories boosting the Tigers stock, coach Binky Favis felt the other teams would now take them seriously in the conference.

"We’re the underdogs but with these wins other teams might have realized that they couldn’t fool around with the Tigers," said Favis.

Allan Salangsang, Jason Misolas and Joseph Yeo all churned out career-best performances in leading the Tigers past the struggling reigning champions.

Salangsang made a career-high 16 points, Misolas personal highs 14 points and 10 rebounds and Yeo his most productive output in his young pro career with 13 points.

Chris Pacana, a rookie out of St. Francis of Assisi College, had his significant numbers with eight points and eight rebounds in his second game with the Tigers, providing Dennis Miranda solid backup job at point guard spot.

"Chris (Pacana) is such a big bonus coming off the bench. He replaces Denok (Miranda) and he keeps the pace or keep the team on the same page as with Denok directing plays for us," said Favis.

With the splendid jobs of their new recruits, the Tigers handed the Giants a third loss in four games despite losing Kalani Ferreria and John Arigo to injury and leg cramps.

Ferreria grimaced in pain after a bad fall right in the first half while Arigo suffered cramps early in the third quarter. Ferreria was feared to sustain a pelvic bone injury.

Salangsang played extended minutes in the second half with Arigo rooted on the bench and made the most out of it, exploding for 14 in the payoff period.

The former Letran Knight strung up nine straight points in a lethal run that broke the game open at 80-65.

Curiously, Paul Artadi also had a career-best performance for Purefoods, tallying 18 points, five rebounds and the same number of assists.