TERRAFIRMA just rewrote the history books with a 106-95 shocker over defending champion San Miguel Beer Sunday in their PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals duel at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
It now looks like the Dyip are ready for more.
Isaac Go set the tone early and the sustaining fire from his teammates, led by Juami Tiongson and Stephen Holt, enabled Terrafirma to thwart its top-ranked opponents' bid to make short of the series.
With the win, the eighth-seeded Dyip not only negated the Beermen's twice-to-beat advantage but also forced a deciding game on Wednesday.
For coach Johnedel Cardel, it would all boil down to his players continuing to shake off the jitters from their first playoff appearance together and maintaining their hard-nosed defense in order to duplicate what No. 8 NorthPort did to top-ranked NLEX in the 2019 Governors' Cup quarterfinals.
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"We're playing good defense. Alam nila ginagawa sa loob, 'yung switching," said Cardel in summarizing the major factor in the franchise's first playoff win and a step closer to completing the man-sized upset.
"Siyempre, it's a different story (come the sudden-death game). This is a champion team, di ba? But we will just do our part... go back to practice on Monday, go back to the video and titingnan namin mga dapat naming gawin doon sa mga mali namin," added Cardel.
The Dyip did do a lot of things right, especially after the Beermen trimmed an 11-point deficit to just 82-86. Kemark Carino boomed in his only triple of the game to spark an 11-4 exchange that gave the former more breathing room.
And SMB coming within 91-99 proved to be not too big of a threat as Tiongson scored the last seven of his game-high 29 points to ensure the victory.
Holt wound up with 25 points and eight assists, Javi Gomez de Liano came off the bench for 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists and Go booked a new career-high 22 points with 17 coming in the first half that helped Terrafirma shrug off SMB's 7-0 start to the game.
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"That was the gameplan," said Go who accounted for six of the Dyip's 15 made triples. "When you go up against June Mar (Fajardo), he's a rim protector, he has great paint defense so parang that's our offense.
"We know San Miguel is the No. 1 three-point shooting team. Kami No. 2 so parang na-challenge kami. That's what we have to do to beat a juggernaut like San Miguel."
Fajardo, who did away with his protective mask in the second half, tallied 21 points and 16 rebounds while CJ Perez came off the bench to chip in 20 for SMB. (NC)
The Scores:
TERRAFIRMA 106 -Tiongson 29, Holt 25, Go 22, Gomez de Liano 15, Cahilig 6, Ramos 4, Carino 3, Camson 2, Alolino 0, Sangalang 0.
SAN MIGUEL 95 - Fajardo 21, Perez 20, Cruz 11, Lassiter 10, Romeo 9, Tautuaa 8, Ross 5, Brondial 4, Trollano 4, Manuel 0.
QUARTERS: 27-26, 54-49, 82-73, 106-95
