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AN
extremely hot Mark Caguioa can be one lethal weapon.
That was
displayed by the irrepressible Ginebra guard when he
torched Air21 for 39 points, boosting the Kings to a
97-92 win on Saturday in a Smart-Philippine Basketball
Association (PBA) Fiesta Conference road game at the
jampacked Zamboanga City Coliseum.
For that
feat, Caguioa was unanimously voted as the Smart/Accel-
PBA Press Corps’ Player of the Week for the period May
19 to 25.
Now, if only Mark Caguioa
can weave his deadly form consistently, then Ginebra
fans won’t have to feel frustrated every time.
Crucial
follow-ups by Junthy Valenzuela and Billy Mamaril in the
dying seconds of the hard-fought game helped spell the
final difference, but it was inarguable it wouldn’t have
boiled down to those needed shots if not for Caguioa’s
personal conference-high.
Even
Ginebra coach Jong Uichico thinks so. “Even when we were
losing, he’s been carrying the load for us, and that
game just stressed that fact,” he said.
As a
result, the crowd favorites, who had a much easier
105-70 rout of Welcoat the Sunday before, had their
first back-to-back wins in the conference, improving
their win-loss record to 3-7, half a game ahead of the
cellar-dwelling Dragons.
Caguioa’s output fell just a point short of tying the
season-high by Sta. Lucia Realty’s Nelbert Omolon, and
the former also just missed finishing with his fifth
career 40-point game.
But it
served other purposes, as well, aside from reminding the
rest of the field that when Caguioa’s on, he’s on.
The 39
pushed Caguioa’s scoring average to 25.7 ppg, ahead of
Air21 reinforcement Steven Thomas’s 24.6.
Although
the season-ending tournament is just past its halfway
point of the eliminations, it marks the first time a
local is the leading scorer during an import-laced
tournament.
“That’s
exceptional,” noted Uichico, while somewhat ruing the
fact that Caguioa’s usual scoring sprees take away some
of the luster off the other facets of his game.
“We know
he can score, but he’s been holding his own on the other
end of the court,” Uichico pointed out. “He has been
adopting a more serious defensive mentality of late, and
because of that he has been steadily developing as a
better all-around player.”
It is
what he is best known for, however, that the 2001 Rookie
of the Year secured his special niche in the league’s
annals.
This was
apparent to the close to 10,000 who packed each
available space at the Zamboanga City Coliseum, as the
conference’s top local scorer, who went into the game
averaging 24.1 ppg, already had 21 at the half,
including 15 in the second quarter that saw the Kings
surge ahead, 49-43.
It
didn’t matter he was given different looks by Air21
coach Bo Perasol, who alternately pitted Nino Cañaleta,
Gary David, Wynne Arboleda and Egay Billones on the
former national team mainstay.
He added
12 points in the third period to tie his personal
conference-high, and then totally eclipsed that by
scattering six in the fourth, helping Ginebra take an
86-79 spread into the last 7:27 of play.
Those 33
points after three quarters were the highest put up by a
local player in the tournament, and were only three shy
of the season-best recorded by former Purefoods import
Darius Rice in early April. |
