Sta. Lucia ousts Red Bull, saves q'finals seat

MANILA, Philippines - For anybody who was seeing Sta. Lucia's title defense slipping away, the Realtors' victory on Sunday should silence the doubters. Joseph Yeo scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and veteran big man Dennis Espino scored 10 of his conference-high 23 in the same period and Sta. Lucia clawed back from a 20-point deficit to beat Red Bull 102-98 in the KFC Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Astrodome in Pasay City. It was Sta. Lucia's last game in the elimination round, but the defending champs put themselves in good position for another run at the title. The Realtors, who were on the brink of falling onto the wild-card level, finished the preliminaries with a 10-8 record and assured themselves of a quarterfinal seat. They take a morale-boosting three-game winning streak into the next round. "I knew Red Bull, even though they're already out, will come out strong," Sta. Lucia coach Boyet Fernandez said. "But (my) players heeded my call to have pride in themselves and in the second half, we were able to put pressure on them through our defense." Red Bull (5-13) was the first team eliminated in the tournament and didn't have anything to gain in the game versus Sta. Lucia. But the Bulls, led by Jeff Chan's hot shooting, came out smoking. They were up 63-44 at halftime and built the match's biggest lead at 65-45 some 30 seconds into the third quarter. Then Sta. Lucia flashed its championship form in a patient counterattack. The Realtors cut the score down to 86-75 at the end of the third. In the fourth, Sta. Lucia held Red Bull scoreless in a six-minute span that reversed a 92-84 deficit to a 96-95 advantage going into the final two-minute mark. In that run, Yeo delivered back-to-back three-pointers that tied the game at 92 with five minutes left. Espino's two free throws pushed Sta. Lucia ahead 94-92 for the first time since going up 2-0 before another Espino bucket padded it to 96-92. Three-pointers by Chan (which closed the gap to 96-95) and Magnum Membrere (which made it 100-98 with five seconds on the clock) put Sta. Lucia on the ropes. But two more free throws by Espino with 3.2 seconds left sealed the deal. Kelly Williams, the reigning league MVP, was the only starter to finish in double figures for Sta. Lucia with 15 points and 12 rebounds. "Now, we've been given a chance to defend our crown," Fernandez said. Chan led Red Bull with 23 points on five-of-seven shooting. Cyrus Baguio added 17 but was scoreless in the second half.- GMANews.TV