There may be something that Terrafirma knows so well about the dreaded San Miguel Beer that the other PBA ball clubs do not.
The Dyip on Wednesday took down the league giant through a 110-104 overtime win to breakthrough in the 2021 Philippine Cup. And that massive upset served as a reminder that they have some sort of mastery over SMB.
It actually was the young franchise’s third victory over the Beermen in their last five meetings. The previous two were both in 2019 — a 124-118 conquest in the Philippine Cup, followed by a 134-32 OT triumph in the Commissioner’s Cup.
However, head coach Johnedel Cardel downplayed the ‘suki’ notion on the perennial contenders, saying that Wednesday’s W was all a result of each and every one of his wards’ efforts to arrest their four-game slide.
“‘Di naman po, talaga lang bumagsak yung panalo sa’min,” said the soft-spoken mentor. “My players are working hard kaya siguro nanalo kami. They really want to win this game versus a strong team kaya bumagsak ‘yung panalo sa’min.
“And I told them, if we don’t play as a team, if we don’t play defense, hindi tayo mananalo. But they played.”
The Dyip indeed came out to play and showed how badly they wanted to enter the winners’ circle, coming back from as much as 16 down in the third before showing composure in the extra period to secure the victory.
Spearheading the attack was Juami Tiongson, who finished with a career-high 28 points — 10 of which he made in the fourth — and seven assists.
But then there’s also their reliable bigs led by the veteran Aldrech Ramos, who finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Not to be forgotten are Eric Camson and young big Joseph Gabayni as they churned out double-doubles each. The former made 13 points and 10 rebounds, while the latter supplied 11 markers and 15 boards.
Rashawn McCarthy, one of the former players of San Miguel, chimed in 10 points off the bench in the win.
“I tell them to play hard every day,” said Cardel. “We have seven more games, and I didn’t want to end it without winning. I told them we have a game against San Miguel, I know this is a very strong team, so we have to work hard.
“Just go on the court, play as a team, and enjoy playing the game. Kaya ‘yun, iba nangyari at nanalo,” he added.
