Unbeaten Express trip Giants in OT

Mark Telan and Gary David put up a brave stand in an explosive shootout with Marquin Chandler and James Yap, and Air21 sustained its hot start in the Talk n Text PBA Fiesta Cup, outlasting titleholder Purefoods, 107-103, in overtime last night at the Astrodome.

Telan got away with career highs 27 points and 21 rebounds while David came through with a personal conference high of 32 points, leading the Express to a fourth straight win in the season-ending tourney.

"I want to prove that there are still players who can put up a show in the league minus the members of the RP team," said David, who has emerged as Air21’s reliable take-charge guy in his third season in the league.

David, a former Lyceum King Pirate, went 11-of-24 from the field and 9-of-11 from the stripe as he finished 10 points above his team-high average of 22.3 points a game. He’s the only player in the conference leading his team in scoring.

"Ranidel (De Ocampo) is out of the team, so we really have to work hard," said Telan

Telan and David negated Chandler’s and Yap’s own fiery performances as the Express dealt the Giants a fourth defeat in five outings.

Chandler scored a game-high 42 points and Yap added 27 but they had crucial misses at crunch time, enabling Air21 to score a second straight overtime victory and further improve its best start in a tourney with four games.

"We didn’t look at our 3-0 start but at our 0-4 record against Purefoods in the last two conferences. That was how we motivated ourselves in this game," said Air21 coach Bo Perasol.

The Express had a chance to win the game in regulation but David missed a fall-away jumper of Chandler in the closing seconds.

David, however, won‚t be discourage and continued to lead the Air21 charge in overtime.

David fired eight points with Telan adding four and Arwin Santos three in the extra play which the Giants eventually lost on two missed charities by Chandler with time down to 7.8 seconds.

Shawn Daniels, however, was so much worse from the stripe, converting only four of 16 charities ˆ an awful marksmanship helping Purefoods stay in the thick of the fight.

Daniels made up for his poor free-throw shooting on his domination off the boards with 22 caroms.