Pingris helps San Mig end slide

Games today:
Mall of Asia Arena
5:45 p.m.- Air21 vs. Barangay Ginebra
8:00 p.m.- Alaska vs. Meralco

THE SAN MIG Coffee Mixers avoided a third straight setback with a 90-88 squeaker over the Barako Bull Energy Colas last night in the 39th PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

While the Coffee Mixers ended a two-game slide, the Energy Colas absorbed their fifth straight setback since starting the tournament with two back-to-back victories.

The win put San Mig in a three-way tie for seventh to ninth spots with the Alaska Aces and the Energy Colas with similar 2-5 (win-loss) cards.

Marc Pingris unloaded 13 of his team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter, allowing the Coffee Mixers to come back from a 49-60 third quarter deficit.
The Energy Colas took a 66-58 lead going into the fourth but the Coffee Mixers staged a 16-6 run to grab the upperhand in the final two minutes, 83-80 .
Barako Bull threatened in the waning moments but Pingirs bailed the Coffee Mixers out of danger by going four-for-six from the charity stripe.

Two free throws by Pingris put the Coffee Mixers on top, 86-82, with 22 seconds and after a missed triple by Ronjay Buenafe, James Yap made it a six-point game by hitting two gifts shots with 15.8 ticks.

The Energy Colas didn’t give up easily as back-to-back triples by JC Intal moved them within a point, 88-89, with 3.1 seconds to go.
Barako Bull got a huge break when PJ Simon missed the second of his two free throws and Pingris was called for a loose ball foul in a rebounding battle.

With no timeout to spare, the Energy Colas failed to map out a decent play as Denok Miranda was forced to issue a long inbound pass to Buenafe, whose potential game-wining triple went awry.

Intal led the Energy Colas with 21 markers./EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CALVIN D. CORDOVA