INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines—The coach allowed himself to be coached and the result was another one of those storybook come-from-behind wins by Barangay Ginebra.

“I said ‘yes’ because what I was doing wasn’t working,” Ginebra coach Jong Uichico told reporters after the Gin Kings rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit to hammer out a 116-103 victory over the San Miguel Beermen and take a 2-1 lead in the Motolite PBA Fiesta Cup title series at the jampacked Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

“I thank the players for something that we did in the second half, especially Jayjay (Helterbrand),” Uichico continued. “It wasn’t me that had the game plan today.”

The mild-mannered Uichico, who is seeking his 10th career title, hedged at first before revealing that it was Helterbrand’s idea to use Willie Wilson and let him contain Jay Washington.

Despite the absence of the suspended Danny Ildefonso and Marc Pingris, San Miguel dominated the first half as Washington hit 18 of his 22 points.

But Wilson limited Washington to only four in the third period even as Ginebra rallied behind David Noel, who chalked up the first triple double of his PBA career.

Noel shot 34 points, hauled down 10 rebounds and issued 11 feeds in a mammoth display of all-around brilliance that carried the Kings through and prompted Uichico to lash back at his detractors who predicted a 4-1 Ginebra loss in the series.

Ginebra scored 40 points in the fourth period, 14 of them coming from Noel, as the Kings easily erased a 76-78 deficit to win with plenty to spare and wrest psychological advantage when the series resumes on Wednesday.

“Partly, they were able to hold down J-Wash,” said San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen, who refused to attribute the loss to the one-game ban slapped on Ildefonso and Pingris for going after a heckling fan when they tied the series Friday.

“But we basically shot ourselves in the foot when we allowed them 40 points in the fourth quarter,” he added.

“The concern wasn’t J-Wash being held down to four points in the second half. The issue is that we didn’t play our defense right.”

The Beermen raced to a nine-point lead in the first quarter before bloating this to 12 in the second period.

It was the highest scoring half in the series for the Beermen, who had all but two of 10 players scoring right in the first two periods alone—until their second-half offensive meltdown.

Meanwhile, Best Player of the Conference Helterbrand and Arwind Santos of Burger King were among seven players named as candidates for the season-ending MVP trophy.

Coca-Cola’s Asi Taulava, Sta. Lucia Realty’s Kelly Williams, Talk ‘N Text’s Mark Cardona, San Miguel’s Dondon Hontiveros and Willie Miller of Alaska, a two-time winner, are the other candidates for the honor.

The awarding will be held before Wednesday’s Game 4.

Taulava, Williams, Helterbrand, Santos and Cardona were the top five players in the statistical points race through the semifinal round of the Fiesta Conference.

Though failing to make the top five in the stats race, Miller and Hontiveros also became MVP contenders because Miller was the Philippine Cup BPC and Hontiveros was the stats leader of his team, which made the Fiesta Conference finals.

The scores:
BARANGAY GINEBRA 116—Noel 32, Menk 16, Tubid 13, Baguio 12, Salvacion 11, Helterbrand 9, Wilson 8, Reavis 7, Mamaril 4, Lanete 3, Intal 1, Artadi 0.
SAN MIGUEL 103—Freeman 25, Washington 22, Cortez 15, Hontiveros 12, Pennisi 10, Villanueva 9, Peña 6, Gonzales 4, Eman 0, Racela 0.
Quarters: 21-29, 48-61, 76-78, 116-103