CAGUIOA, HELTERBRAND STILL 1-2 IN BPC RACE AFTER GAME 4 OF SEMIS

But Furious leads Fast by just 0.2

IF the statistical race is to be the gauge, Barangay Ginebra's Mark Caguioa is on his way to snaring the Best Player award in the Smart PBA Fiesta Conference.

The prolific Kings guard finished the semifinals on top of the race with 32.62 statistical points average, with only teammate Jayjay Helterbrand (32.42 Sps) crowding him for the tournament's highest individual plum.

The two finished racking up the stats after sweeping Red Bull in four games of their semifinals series.

The rest of their closest pursuers, even those from Air21 and Magnolia, which are still battling for the other finals slot, have little way of overtaking them and snatching the award away.

Should either Caguioa, who snared the same award in the 2006-07 Philippine Cup, or Helterbrand bag the citation, then he will become an automatic contender for the season MVP.

Only the top five in the SPs race are to be considered for the award, but it will also include the top player from the other finalist if he isn’t among the Top 5 contenders.

That means Air21's Arwind Santos, who dropped from fourth at the end of the eliminations to sixth with his 29.00 average, could be a contender. Ditto for Magnolia's Dondon Hontiveros, who is at 16th with 23.0.

Smart Philippine Cup BPC winner Kelly Williams got mired at third with his 32.38 SPs average, Alaska's Willie Miller is still stuck at fourth with 30.30 and Purefoods' Kerby Raymundo at fifth with 29.50.

The award, along with the Best Import plum, will be announced in Game 3 of the Finals.

The third big reason for Barangay Ginebra's 12-game winning streak and early Finals entry, Chris Alexander, is also the frontrunner in the Best Import category.

Alexander, the tournament leader in rebounding, field-goal percentage and shotblocks, has a 48.6 SPs average, way ahead of Air21 reinforcement Steven Thomas (46.6).

Despite the Realtors crashing out at sixth the man they tabbed at No. 3 in the draft, Ryan Reyes, remains the leader in the Rookie of the Year award. His 23.4 SPs average, which lodged him at 14th in the overall ladder, is comfortably ahead of the 19.6 by Welcoat's Joe Devance, the top pick overall.

Statistics comprise 30 percent of the criteria with the other points to come from votes by representatives from the media (30 percent), players (25 percent), TV coveror ABC Sports (10 percent) and the PBA Commissioner's Office (5 percent).

BARANGAY GINEBRA'S SPARK TO THE FINALS

YOU can’t simply put a good man down.

Mark Caguioa bore out this age-old adage by helping Barangay Ginebra wrap up its PBA Fiesta Conference semifinals series against Red Bull and earn for himself the Smart/Accel- PBA Press Corps’ Player of the Week citation for the period July 21 to 27.

It was the third such citation for the 2001 Rookie of the Year in the season-ending tournament, putting him among the frontrunners for the Best Player of the Conference award.

Barangay Ginebra coach Jong Uichico believes Caguioa truly deserves the accolades coming his way.

“The competitive spirit, the will to win that Mark brings to our game is just unbelievable,” said the grizzled mentor.

The irrepressible guard showcased this most in the week that was, the one who stepped up bigtime in helping the Kings seal the deal to the tune of a 4-0 sweep of the best-of-seven duel.

After being upstaged by teammates Jayjay Helterbrand and Chris Alexander in the early part of the series, Caguioa exploded for a whopping 25.6-point average in the last three games.

“Bagay na bagay sa kanya ang moniker na ‘The Spark,’ ” noted Uichico. “He was the one who really sparked our surge. His teammates took the cue from him.”

Caguioa also lived up to his other tag, of being “The Furious,” after capping his performance with a 33-point outburst in Game 4, leading Barangay Ginebra to a 101-97 overtime victory.

That output was his fifth 30-plus production in the conference and 30th in his career, further establishing his reputation as the league’s most prolific scorer.

There’s more as he spiked up his average for the week with 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists, relatively small as mere numbers but they take on bigger dimensions, considering Barangay Ginebra won the three games by an average of only 4.6 points.

The win was the 12th straight for Ginebra, further extending its franchise record, while the Finals is the 17th stint for the franchise.

The 2004 champion is looking to become the first team to have won the Fiesta title more than once.

With Caguioa’s razor-sharp form, that goal looks pretty achievable indeed.

THE KINGS’ ROYAL RUN

How good have the Barangay Ginebra Kings been?

Let me put it in perspective.

They have not lost in the last 60 days. That’s a span of about eight fuel price increases since they last tasted defeat.

In 80 days, they suffered only one loss. That’s a single defeat since the start of the school year.

Their 12-game win streak is the longest in 12 years, only one game short of the 13-game streak of Alaska in 1996. That’d be three presidents back for a longer win streak.

Their sweep of Red Bull was the first sweep in a best-of-seven in 16 years or not since Aiza Seguerra was still dancing in Eat Bulaga!

It is surely shaping up to be a historic run being engineered by the Kings.

Although with all the praises thrown at them right now, the conference was actually looking to be historic for all the wrong reasons at the beginning of the 2007 Smart Fiesta Conference.

Starting off the season with a game against Red Bull, Barangay Ginebra parlayed Rashon Turner. Turner couldn’t muster the right tunes for his team as he left the team reeling with a 0-3 record. Turner was so ineffective that during his stint, it seemed that it was Mark Caguioa who was the import. After Turner, it was Ernest Brown. The 7-foot Brown was big and much more productive than Turner but in the end he left his team with a bigger 0-5 record to deal with.

Everything seemed to be going wrong at this point and they had the worst record in the league. They had already gone through two imports and the rest of the field was leaving them behind.

So they made their third change. Out went Brown and in came Chris Alexander. On the onset, it looked like more of the same for Ginebra. Winning only one out of their first three games with Alexander. I remember Coach Jong Uichico saying that the tools are there for the team, the right import and locals, but the wins have not come yet. But when it came, it surely poured. After that statement, the Kings put together wins in 15 of their last 16 games.

When teams put in winning runs like this, it’s really not that easy to put your finger on the one thing that turned their season around. For Barangay Ginebra, you’ll probably need your whole hand to recognize the number of reasons for their run.

The one reason that most everyone will recognize for the run is Chris Alexander. Leading the league in rebounds, FG% and shotblocks, he may be the hands down choice for Best Import (with apologies to Steven Thomas and how much he has meant to Air21). You just can’t argue what Alexander the Great has done for his team, a 15-3 record, best winning percentage of all the imports. His passion has rubbed on real well with his teammates and has become an inspirational leader for his team. Oh, and his 20+ rebounds and 3+ blocks also help a lot.

But, as good as Alexander has been, the streak is not all about him. You have to look at what the Fast and the Furious have done. The combination of Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand have been good for a combined 40+ points, 10+ assists and 7+ rebounds.

Caguioa has gotten it together this conference after returning overweight in the season late last conference. His speed and quickness are back and has really torched opposing defenders.

The bigger story has to be the emergence of Helterbrand as the top point guard of the league. A debatable issue before, Helterbrand has put to rest any ideas that he is not tops at the one spot in the PBA. With career and league best numbers in assists, Helterbrand’s scoring has also jumped to over 20 in the semis.

In an offense that really allows the guards to shine, there have been no brighter ones than these two.

Another guard enjoying the Barangay Ginebra system is Paul Artadi. He has to be the most improved player within the conference. After struggling last conference and at the start of this one, he is now able to fill the void left by the injury to Ronald Tubid. His shooting and confidence are at its highest in his career. Proof of which is that he has hit three three-pointers this season. Not a lot, but his last trey before those mentioned was all the way back two years ago.

But with all the success that a team gets, people always look at what the players are doing. For Barangay Ginebra, I think more credit have to be given to what both management and the coaching staff have done for their team. If you look at the pick-ups management made, they really put their team in the best position to contend. Guys like Artadi, Chris Pacana and Alex Crisano were all grabbed without losing any of their own pieces. They also made the Valenzuela trade (without giving up Sunday Salvacion), one that I thought was overkill given the number of guards they had, but it turned out perfect especially with the loss of Tubid. They picked up guards that could create while getting big men whose main job was to rebound, defend and get drop passes. All in all, they knew what they needed and were willing to take a risk on players who might fit the bill. They took a chance on guys like Pacana, who was already in the US and Crisano, who was last seen dancing on TV.

But in the end, you have to credit coach Jong Uichico. The guy never panics! He was 0-5 and stayed with the system he believed in.

And this is not the first time he has taken a team 0-5 to the Finals, having done so with San Miguel Beer with Kwan Johnson in the 2003 Reinforced Conference.

Some people might say that his team is loaded with talent but when you look at it, there are other coaches that have been unable to harness their teams’ potential and haven’t been able to live up to their billing.

Barangay Ginebra has always sold itself to have a never-say-die attitude. For many games during the season, the big question on their fans was if that never-say-die attitude had already been forgotten. Question answered!

By Jason Webb

BEST PLAYER TROPHY TOSSUP BETWEEN GINEBRA BUDDIES

Caguioa and Helterbrand pace stats derby

The Ginebra backcourt tandem of Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand have found themselves locked in a tight battle for the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award having co-starred in an amazing 12-game romp that led to the Kings’ early entry into the 2008 Smart PBA Fiesta Conference Finals.

It's now a toss-up between the Ginebra buddies, unless Air21 also makes the Finals and Arwind Santos comes through with monster performances.

Already leading the BPC race after the elimination round, Caguioa and Helterbrand gained more ground on everybody as they even performed better in the playoffs, leading Ginebra to a two-game sweep of Sta. Lucia Realty in the quarterfinals and a four-game shutout of Red Bull in the semifinals.

During their 12-game run, Caguioa and Helterbrand took turns getting the Accel-Smart Player of the Week honors. Caguioa was the winner of the award in the week just past, highlighting his showing in the period with a 33-point explosion Sunday when Ginebra completed its sweep of Red Bull with a 101-97 overtime victory.

Caguioa, the 2006 Philippine Cup Best Player, is the league leading local scorer averaging 22.8 points a game while Helterbrand, the 2006 Philippine Cup Finals MVP, leads everybody in assists with 6.2 feeds per game on top of his 18.6 points a night.

Sta. Lucia's Kelly Williams and Alaska's Willie Miller were in the Magic Five after the elimination round. But they have kissed their BPC bid goodbye on the early exit of their teams in the season-ending tourney.

Santos was also in the Magic Five after the elims. It's uncertain, though, whether he would keep his spot with his performance dipping in the playoffs.

Gary David, now fully recovered from an ACL injury, has taken over as Air21's top gun, averaging 20.9 points in the playoffs against Santos' 11.2-point norm.

The question is whether David would make the Magic Five in time for the cut-off date in the stats race after placing only 18th in the elims.

Ranidel de Ocampo and Wynne Arboleda are the other Air21 players in the BPC race, standing at No. 13 and No. 14, respectively, before the playoffs.

Danny Seigle was Magnolia's strongest bet after the elims but his showing has been ruined by injuries in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Ginebra's Chris Alexander and Air21's Steven Thomas are the leading candidates for the Best Import honors.

Red Bull's Adam Parada showed the way early on until the arrival of other behemoths including Alexander, the league leading rebounder and shot-blocker.

GINEBRA SWEPT RED BULL, ADVANCES TO THE FINALS

Caguioa nets 30th career 30-plus game to lead Kings

How sweep it is for Barangay Ginebra.

The Kings got that and more following a 101-97 victory Sunday in their Smart PBA Fiesta Conference semifinal series before a fullhouse crowd of approximately 12,000 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Barangay Ginebra came scrambling back from a six-point deficit in the closing minutes of regulation and then pulled out all stops in overtime to fashion the pulsating victory that enabled it to wrap up the best-of-seven series at four games to none.

“It's a big, big, big relief to get to the championships again,” said Kings coach Jong Uichico after the win that seemed improbable for majority of regulation and then became inexorable right at the midway point of the extension when they took a 101-94 lead.

The win extended the franchise streak record to 12 straight and, coincidentally, marks the 12th time in his coaching career that Uichico has made it to the finals, second with Barangay Ginebra.

He said this one is made more memorable by the trials and tribulations they had to go through following a 0-5 start in the tournament.

In the end, the crowd favorite ran up their franchise winning streak record to 12 straight, a feat Uichico tried to downplay.

“We don't think about streaks. The players think about trying to do the best they can to win the game. They are here to win. It's our job to win every game possible,” he stated.

That didn't stop him from being magnanimous towards Red Bull.
“Hindi naging madali ito para sa Ginebra. We fought really hard to get where we are right now because Red Bull is so hard to read,” he said.

“It's just that the breaks of the game went our way. They missed shots they usually make and we got the breaks at the right place, at the right time,” he added.

The Kings now await the winner of the other semis pairing pitting Magnolia and Air21.

The Express lead that series 2-1 with Game 3 being played later Sunday night.

Uichico's San Miguel Beer was the last team to start a conference with a 0-5 win-loss record and make it to the finals, the feat achieved in the 2003 Reinforced Conference.

The Beermen lost that one to the Chot Reyes-coached Coca-Cola Tigers and Uichico understandably refused to identify which team he prefers facing in the best-of-seven title duel.

“Enjoy na lang muna today, look at the second series and see who we're going to play,” he said.

Mark Caguioa scored a game-high 33 points to lead all scorers.

It was his fifth 30-plus point game in the tournament and 30th in the career of the 2001 Rookie of the Year, helping offset the low scoring game of teammate Jayjay Helterbrand and Chris Alexander, who combined for only 23 points.

Alexander and Rafi Reavis, however, each had 19 rebounds for Ginebra with the seven-foot import adding seven blocks to tie the season-high set by Red Bull counterpart Adam Parada.

Barangay Ginebra failed to win it outright in regulation but poured it all out in the extension by hitting its first four shots of the extra period and take a 101-94 lead, 2:31 left in the game.

The whirlwind spree was highlighted by a surprise triple from Paul Artadi and capped by a fastbreak, two-handed dunk by Reavis.

That proved enough of a cushion as Red Bull practically threw away its worthiest stand in the series by flubbing its ensuing offensive thrusts, three coming from beyond the arc inside the last 30 seconds.

Cyrus Baguio bucked a 2-of-10 shooting start to finish with 26 points and lead the Barakos, who are left with the prospect of salvaging their second third place finish in the season and third straight overall.

Parada had his most noteworthy performance of the duel with 24 points, nine rebounds and six blocks, but only Celino Cruz was the lone double figure scorer for the Barakos with 11.

What should gnaw at Red Bull for a long time were a blown 65-56 lead in the third period and a 90-84 spread in the last 2:37.

Helterbrand, who went into the game with a 21.0 ppg average, was held to just 10 points but capped it with a jumper that started a 6-0 windup by Barangay Ginebra that tied it at 90.

Helterbrand, the Best Player of the Game in the first three games of the series, almost became the goat, however, after the Kings regained possession in the last 15.3 seconds of regulation, dribbling away most of the seconds before putting up a jumper that fell way short against Baguio's defense. (NCo)

The scores:

Barangay Ginebra 101 - Caguioa 33, Alexander 13, Salvacion 13, Artadi 10, Helterbrand 10, Valenzuela 9, Reavis 9, Pacana 4, Mamaril 0, Menk 0.

Red Bull 97 - Baguio 26, Parada 24, Cruz 11, Najorda 8, Hrabak 7, Duncil 5, Alvarez 5, Robinson 5, Ybanez 3, Pennisi 3.

Quarterscores: 29-21, 48-47, 70-73, 90-90, 101-97.

GINEBRA ON THRESHOLD OF PLACE IN FINALS

Caguioa & Helterbrand 20/20 lead Kings to 3-0 bulge

ANTIPOLO -- The Caguioa-Helterbrand-Alexander combo continued to be a dish Red Bull had no answer for.

For a while, it appeared a pocket surprise in Topex Robinson would do it for Red Bull, but Mark Caguioa, Jayjay Helterbrand and Chris Alexander again stood on the Barakos' way.


Barangay Ginebra made a crucial 15-point swing in the third quarter and beat out Red Bull in a gripping endgame battle, eking out a 94-91win to move in the threshold of the 2008 Smart PBA Fiesta Conference Finals at the Ynares Center here Friday night.

With a commanding three-game-to-nil lead, the Kings have no less than four cracks at a finals seat, the first in Game Four Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

For Red Bull to salvage the series, the Barakos have to beat the Kings four in a row -- a feat no team in the rich history of the local pro league has ever done.

"With a 3-0 lead, we want to get it over with the soonest possible time. You don't want to make it difficult for yourself," said Ginebra coach Jong Uichico.

"Konting hilot na lang sa mga bata, and we really intend to do that dahil sigurado namang hindi basta-basta ibibigay sa amin ng Red Bull yan. We still have to continue doing what we've been doing right," Uichico added.

The Kings are now on a super hot 11-game romp, 3-0 in the semis boosted largely by the exploits of Mark Caguioa, Jayjay Helterbrand and Chris Alexander.

Caguioa and Helterbrand scored 20 points apiece while Alexander piled 16 rebounds, 13 points, four blocks and three assists as the Kings fended off the toughest challenge put up by the Barakos in the series so far.

Robinson was a key factor in Red Bull's tough stand as the pesky guard out of San Sebastian provided so much intensity and energy, coming through with 11 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

The Kings trailed by seven points early in the third but made a decisive run, surging ahead, 68-62, going into the final quarter.

In an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation at the finish, Helterbrand, Caguioa and Alexander again took the challenge for the Kings, thus, eventually pushing the Barakos on a 0-3 hole.

Ginebra played the catch-up role most of the early goings, tying it up, 39-all, at the half on a six-point closing run by Helterbrand, Rafi Reavis and Junthy Valenzuela.

Helterbrand and Valenzuela combined for a 5-of-5 perfect shooting from beyond the arc, a big lift for the Kings who struggled with a mere 33.3-percent field-goal shooting in the first half.

Mick Pennisi, Rich Alvarez and Mike Hrabak combined for four treys. (NC)

The scores:

Ginebra 94 -- Caguioa 20, Helterbrand 20, Alexander 13, Artadi 9, Valenzuela 9, Reavis 9, Salvacion 8, Menk 6, Pacana 0, Mamaril 0.

Red Bull 91 -- Parada 19, Pennisi 18, Alvarez 15, Baguio 13, Robinson 11, Hrabak 5, Adriano 4, Duncil 2, Najorda 2, Cruz 2, Juntilla 0.

Quarterscores: 17-20, 39-39, 68-62, 94-91