Kerby Raymundo scored a career-high 30 points, while Yee added 12 points, including five crucial free throws, in the last two minutes. Purefoods pummeled Red Bull with a 60.9 percent field-goal shooting in the second quarter, and the Giants, nursing a 23–22 edge at the end of the opening period, zoomed to a 53–34 spread at halftime. The Bulls had a fiery chase in the third quarter. They were ahead 97–94 but went scoreless in the last 1:55 of play. Yee canned in two charities off a foul by Villanueva to tie the count at 97-all, and then Raymundo scored on a 15-foot jumper as the Giants surged ahead, 99-97, with time down to 30.9 seconds.
The Giants were off to a great start in the first quarter by taking a 12-point lead. Red Bull bounced back behind Lordy Tugade and the rest of the team to take a 48-39 halftime lead. Richard Yee put in another sterling performance by banging all of his 17 points in the second half, while Marc Pingris pumped in a career-high 21 points, most of them in the shaded area, to help the Giants pull away.[1]
Celino Cruz and Lordy Tugade fired all of Red Bull's seven three-pointers, most of them done in a fashion that riled the Giants while putting up a tough and gritty defense. Enrico Villanueva, Junthy Valenzuela, and Cyrus Baguio also had their sparkling moments that helped the Bulls pull away in the third period.[2]
Purefoods started hot from the get-go, with key games from newly crowned MVP James Yap and Most Improved Player Marc Pingris. The Giants led by as many as 34 points, and the Bulls never looked back.[3]
The Bulls came back from 15 points down. After Celino Cruz tied the count at 90-all with a triple and Enrico Villanueva and Larry Fonacier went to work, the Giants suddenly got cold feet. Season MVP James Yap muffed his last seven attempts from three-point range, while Kerby Raymundo missed a couple of point-blank attempts.[4]
