Burger King vents ire on Yap-less Purefoods, boosts semis bid

MANILA, Philippines – Burger King hardly showed the effects of a heartbreaking double overtime loss the way it dominated a James Yap-less Purefoods Sunday night, 96-86, in the Motolite-PBA Fiesta Cup at the Astrodome. Arwind Santos topscored with 21 points, Aaron Aban added 12, Shawn Daniels had 10 and the rest of the eight players fielded in by coach Yeng Guiao scored three or more in a balanced show of scoring for the Whoppers. To think that just three days ago, the same team dropped a sorry 135-129 double overtime setback to the Talk `N Text team. “Kailangan naming manalo. At tsaka bumawi lang kami sa (pagkatalo) Talk `N Text," said Santos, who shot 9-of-18 from the field and turned in the game’s highlight reel play when he converted on a two-handed reverse lay up off two Purefoods defenders to make it 94-82 with 1:35 remaining. Burger King has now moved up to tie idle Rain or Shine in second place with an identical 8-6 card and remains in the fight for the second automatic slot in the Final Four of the season-ending meet. The loss was big blow to Purefoods (7-7) as it bowed out in the running for an outright semis berth. The absence of Yap, the team’s best player, hurt the Giants badly. The shooting guard out of University of the East showed up in uniform but sat out the entire game owing to a fever. “Malaking bagay sa panalo naming `yung pagkawala ni James. Alam naman nating kung ano ang nagagawa niya sa Purefoods," said Santos. In Yap’s absence, Marquis Chandler took the cudgels for the Giants with 26 points. Peter June Simon and Rico Villanueva added 15 each while Kerby Raymundo chipped in 12. Raymundo likewise apologized to the public for his endgame behavior in the Giants’ loss to the Sta. Lucia Realtors last Thursday, 104-95. After fouling out of the game with 1:02 left, Raymundo angrily took off his jersey and threw it down to the floor while he was heading towards the Purefoods locker room. The Whoppers sat on a 51-42 lead at the half as Marvin Cruz completed a perfect steal by scoring on a fastbreak lay up just before the buzzer. Playing more solid and rotating the ball well, Burger King led by as many as 11 (35-24), before the Giants sued for a time out to talk things over. They did cut the deficit to 42-47, but the Whoppers closed out the first half by scoring the last four points, capped by that big Cruz interception. –GMANews.TV