Kings savor sweet win

QUEZON CITY — Maybe it was the coach getting a reassuring nod from a beloved mentor or the supposed luck rubbing off from his pregnant wife. 

Or maybe it was just the sheer will of a bunch of players led by an indomitable force.

Maybe it was a combination of all those that carried Barangay Ginebra to a title-clinching win over gritty Talk N Text Phone Pals in the Gran Matador-PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) Philippine Cup last Friday at the jampacked Araneta Coliseum.

The Kings’ 96-86 victory gave them a 4-2 win in the best-of-seven series, their second straight championship in the league’s longest conference on its 30th and longest season and their sixth overall.

“These back-to-back championships are our gifts to our fans for their endless support to our team,” team manager Allan Caidic said to a deafening roar of approval by their throngs of loyal followers comprising the majority of the 18,287 in the venue.

“Those fans, actually our sixth man, deserve this (championship),” said coach Siot Tanquingcen. Through thick and thin they never lost faith. This is for them.”

Major factor for the La Tondena franchise, which won its first All-Filipino title in 1988 as Añejo Rhum, was “Major Pain.”

Eric Menk saved his best for last by coming up with monstrous numbers of 39 points, 19 rebounds and three assists, leading a Kings team that had its starters scoring all but two of the team’s total points.

The game was already the 119th in the tournament, the most in any conference in league history. The previous record for most number of games in a conference was 118 in last year’s Fiesta Conference and in the 2003 All-Filipino Cup won by Talk N Text.

The Phone Pals went into the game looking for a win that should have forced only the 14th Game 7 in PBA Finals history. Had they won, anything could have happened. 

But don’t tell that to Menk who insisted, “We would have won still.” 
There was never any real need for such concerns. Using one scoring spurt after another Ginebra managed to take a 91-82 lead into the final 45 seconds and, fittingly, it was Menk who capped the Kings’ scoring by draining a shot clock-beating triple that made it 96-84 with only 9.2 ticks left.

“That was the only time I relaxed,” he related. 

The Pangilinan franchise simply unraveled after Menk’s backbreaking shot.

Willie Miller struggled in much the same way he did in TNT’s 95-85 double overtime Game 5 loss, while backcourt partner Jimmy Alapag again had costly turnovers that helped defuse the Phone Pals’ rally in the stretch. 

Early foul troubles ladened Don Camaso and Yancy de Ocampo, while Mark Telan, who went into the match with the distinction of being the only player to have scored in the first five games, managed only five points to go with his team-best 12 rebounds.

While the top stars of TNT struggled, Mark Caguioa, Sunday Salvacion, Romel Adducul and Rodney Santos also put up big numbers as Ginebra led 59-47 in rebounding, 17-11 in assists and 7-0 in blocks.

“They might not be superstars,” Tanquingcen pointed out. “But if they need to contribute, step up, they just play with a big heart, willing themselves to play good.”

Tanquingcen, like his players, looked like a man possessed while prowling the sidelines in Game 6. Few, however, knew that after Ginebra lost Games 3 and 4, he paid former San Miguel and national team coach Ron Jacobs a visit. Jacobs, still recovering from a stroke that hit him in 2001, still can’t speak but his mere presence, it seems, gives his former wards the courage and strength to carry on. 

“When we get into a bind or something goes wrong, we go see him. Seeing him just makes everything okay. I just spoke to him and he gave me the thumbs-up sign. Medyo nabalik ang kompiyansa ko,” Tanquingcen related.

“At saka siguro, suwerte talaga ang buntis ang asawa,” added Tanquingcen, whose wife, Rica is, seven weeks pregnant with their first child.

True to his self-effacing self, Tanquingcen refused to take all the credit for the win that was admittedly tougher than the Kings’ 3-1 win over Red Bull Barako in the Fiesta Conference finals last July.

“I wouldn’t say I have accomplished anything. Nataon lang siguro na right place, right time, right bunch of people,” he said.

“Besides, I was blessed with good teachers,” added Tanquingcen, who also served as longtime chief assistant coach to San Miguel Beer’s Jong Uichico before being tapped to replace Caidic last March.

Ginebra will have little time to savor the victory. Next up for Tanquingcen is screening tapes of prospective imports for the Reinforced Conference that starts early next month.