Cola Tigers came from behind to stun the crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra Kings, 96-95, Sunday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in the PBA Fiesta Conference. New import John Williamson scored 24 points and hauled down nine rebounds to lead the Tigers to their sixth win in 15 games. Gary David added 21 markers. But it was Asi Taulava who was declared Player of the Game as he dominated the paint, taking advantage of the continued absence of Ginebra's Eric Menk, who was still down with knee injury. Taulava finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. The win improved the Tigers' win-loss record to 6-9, good for solo seventh in the rankings. With the loss, Ginebra fell to 9-7, snuffed out its last hope of forcing a playoff for the last automatic semifinals berth. Nevertheless, the Kings remained in contention for landing in the Big 5 and snaring one of three automatic quarterfinals seats. The heartbreaker spoiled the Ginebra debut of Mike Cortez who was earlier traded by Air21 for Billy Mamaril. The Kings led all the way until the closing minutes of the third quarter when the Tigers unleashed a furious run to take the lead. The Kings fought back in the final quarter, starring the new backcourt tandem of Mark Caguioa andWillie Miller. With the score tied at 93-all with a minute left in the game, Taulava sank two pressure-packed free throws. The Kings then turned over the ball, leading to a split free throw by Williamson to give the Tigers a 96-93 lead with nine seconds left in the game. The Kings tried to force overtime but Caguioa missed a three-pointer from the top of the arc. The Kings rebounded and whipped a pass to Sunday Salvacion from deep left. With a tenth of a second remaining, Salvacion heaved what he intended to be a desperation three-pointer that went in at the buzzer. However, a video review of the shot showed Salvacion's feet touching the lines of the three-point arc, silencing a premature Ginebra celebration as the referees counted the shot as just a two-pointer, allowing the Tigers to escape with a one-point win. In the first match of the double-header, the Barako Coffee Masters edged the Sta. Lucia Realtors, 103-100, scoring only their third win 16 games—good enough to revive their hopes of stavingoff elimination and securing a wildcard berth. The win snapped Barako's five-game losing streak. However, the Coffee Masters still languished at the bottom with a 3-13 card, half a game behind the Air21 Express. On Saturday, the league-leading Talk N Text Tropang Texters extended their winning streak to 13 games, humbling the San Miguel Beermen, 85-82 in a road game in Victorias City, Negros Occidental in the PBA Fiesta Conference. The Texters thus secured the first automatic semifinals berth with their 14th win in 16 games with still two games left in their elimination round schedule. The Beermen fell to their second straight defeat after losing last Sunday to the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados. Despite the loss, San Miguel remained on solo second in the standings with an 11-4 win-loss card, a full game ahead of Derby Ace (10-5). As such the Beermen remained in strong contention to snare the other outright semifinals slot.
