Purefoods takes giant leap to semis

The Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants continued to dominate the Smart PBA Philippine Cup, blasting the Coca-Cola Tigers, 101-87, yesterday and assuring themselves of the top seeding in the playoffs with two games left in the eliminations.

In nailing down the first outright semis berth, the Giants also eased the Tigers out of contention for the Top Five.

Coming off a two-week layoff, the Giants appeared to be in a hurry to clinch the first semis seat, virtually putting the game away from the Tigers right in the first half at the Araneta Coliseum.

They took the half at 54-35 and hardly encountered trouble the rest of the way as they notched their 12th win against only four losses.

With the Tigers coming closest at 70-82, James Yap fired a three-pointer then Chico Lanete came away with a steal then scored on a spectacular turnaround layup as the Giants reestablished full control.

Sliding to 6-10 in a tie with Air21 at eighth, Coca-Cola now needs to go through the backdoor – the wildcard round – to advance to the quarterfinals.

“We wanted to put our spirit to the test. We didn’t want to go to our last game to get the semis berth. We came out with the playoff mentality in this game,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

“But for sure, we’ll not celebrate yet. We’ve yet to achieve anything,” Gregorio said. “We’ll take a short break. We deserve it. But we’ll not relax.”

Gregorio and his boys topped the eliminations with plenty to spare. After closing out their elims stint versus Alaska Milk and Red Bull, the Giants will enjoy at least a two-week rest before plunging back into action in the semis.

“It’s better to be in this situation than going through the quarterfinals. You fight there without the guarantee of making the semis. Then there’s the risk of injury to your players,” said Gregorio.

Kelly Williams produced a huge double-double game including a career-high 18 rebounds while Ryan Reyes went 6-of-7 from the three-point area as Sta. Lucia Realty stretched its streak to a franchise-record seven games with a 99-77 rout of Magnolia in the second game.

Sta. Lucia’s 11th win in 17 games in all assured the team of at least a playoff crack at the second outright semis seat.