TERRAFIRMA came ready for San Miguel Beer’s main weapons, so Mo Tautuaa decided to take matters into his own hands.
Tautuaa scored 17 of his personal season-high 24 points in the fourth period, enabling the Beermen to nose out the Dyip, 113-110, Wednesday and maintain their unblemished record in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The Fil-Tongan capped his heroics with a left-handed undergoal stab to peg SMB’s 113-110 lead that stood when Terrafirma failed to come up with a decent shot in its last offensive thrust that ended with Isaac Go missed a three-pointer.
As a result, the Beermen stretched their league-leading record to 5-0, a slate that matched their unbeaten start to the 2018 edition of the same tournament.
Tautuaa was undeniably a big part of the win with an ultra-efficient 10-of-14 field shooting, including a 3-of-5 clip from beyond the arc. He tossed in eight rebounds and four assists and did a great job switching on Juami Tiongson in the Dyip’s final play that forced the latter to pass off to Go.
CJ Perez wound up with a game-high 25 points, June Mar Fajardo tallied his 13th straight double-double of the season with 20 points and 17 boards while Terrence Romeo also came off the bench like Tautuaa to chip in 16 markers.
All those helped make up for SMB’;s other starters in Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter and Rodney Brondial combining for only seven points.
It was a sorry loss for Terrafirma, dropping it to an even 4-4 record. But not after putting up a gallant stand that saw it lead by as many as 12 points early before engaging its heavily favored opponent through nine deadlocks and 12 lead changes.
“At the start of the game we were just relaxed, and I was scared of that because my players thought that Terrafirma was just there. They’re not a pushover team anymore. It’s a team that will fight, fight and fight” said SMB coach Jorge Gallent.
“We just needed stops doon sa end,” added Gallent before baring his instructions in the dying seconds: “Defending the three-point area. I told the players, the only shot that will tie the game is the three-point area.”
Tiongson led the Dyip with 24 points, with Javi Gomez de Liano adding 21 points and Stephen Holt notching a double-double of 18 points and 10 assists.
It was Isaac Go who stole the limelight for Terrafirma by anchoring his own 21 points on a career-best seven triples, with the last one giving him nine points in the fourth period and making it a 110-111 count, still 42.3 ticks to go. (NC)
The Scores:
SAN MIGUEL 113 – Perez 25, Tauatua 24, Fajardo 20, Romeo 16, Cruz 9, Manuel 7, Lassiter 6, Trollano 5, Ross 1, Enciso 0, Teng 0.
TERRAFIRMA 110 – Tiongson 24, Go 21, Gomez de Liano 21, Holt 18, Carino 9, Cahilig 6, Sangalang 5, Ramos 4, Alolino 2, Olivario 0, Calvo 0.
QUARTERS: 24-26,, 45-54, 78-75, 113-110
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