Burger King trips San Miguel to extend Fiesta Cup season

MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel will have to wait on Sunday. No way is Burger King going to give the Beermen a berth into the Motolite-PBA Fiesta Cup finals on a silver platter. The Whoppers detonated a fiery run in the fourth quarter and then kept their opponents at bay for good, winning 103-90 in Game 5 Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum to cut the semifinals series deficit at 3-2. Wynne Arboleda, a non-factor in the first four games of the best-of-seven match-up, exploded for a personal conference-high 23 points while Gary David added 17 and Shawn Daniels had 12 points and 11 rebounds as the Whoppers survived a game where their main man – Arwind Santos – struggled. Egay Billones, likewise, came up big ending up with 11 points, nine coming from beyond the arc. Burger King pulled off the win despite coming off a heart-breaking, double-overtime 120-119 loss in Game 4 barely 48 hours ago. Gabe Freeman scored 29 points and pulled down 20 rebounds, but didn’t get the contribution needed from the San Miguel superstars. Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Ildefonso, who combined for 46 points in Game 4, only put together 11 points between themselves. Two-time most valuable player Ildefonso merely shot 3-of-14 from the field while Hontiveros went 2-of-9. “We had a simple objective today," said Burger King coach Yeng Guiao. “We want to keep the series as long as possible. We should have taken Game 4 had the breaks gone our way. “There was no way the players felt we’re going to lose (Friday). Today was the day we are most vulnerable, having coming off a heavy loss. But the team believes that if we win today, we will play better on Sunday." Only two teams down 3-1 in a series have managed to return and win – Ginebra and Purefoods. Hoping to engage the Beermen in a close game to have a crack at winning, the Whoppers really looked headed for another thriller of a contest when Olsen Racela hit a triple as San Miguel came to within 80-78 in the final period. But Billones retaliated with his own three-pointer, triggering a 12-2 assault as Burger King grabbed a 92-80 lead with 7:04 left to play and was never threatened from there. – GMANews.TV