Magnolia Beverage Masters Basketball Games Updates

Leo Najorda Shines As Red Bull Grabs Third Straight Third Place

As expected, the Magnolia Beverage Masters squad that battled for third place lacks the armory and ammunitions needed to win the battle for third place. Being heavily handicapped with the loss of import Amal McCaskill due to knee injury, the team relied on its All-Filipino lineup in waging war against the Barakos. The import's loss was felt heavily with Adam Parada dominating the paint and scoring at will.

Nevertheless, it was a better conference as compared to the All-FIlipino Cup where the team finished fifth, having back then other stars like Enrico Villanueva, LA Tenorio, and Larry Fonacier. Ken Bono showed a lot of promise leading the Magnolia Beverage Masters offensive thrust. Samigue Eman, on the other hand, showed a lot of turnovers - something that he need to work on to improve next season.

For the overachieving Red Bull Barako basketball team - Congratulations!

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THIRD STRAIGHT THIRD PLACE FOR RED BULL Barakos get consolation second runner-up honors in win over Magnolia

Source: Philippine Basketball Association
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

ADAM Parada finally came up with the kind of basketball gamme expected of him Wednesday night. Too bad it came too late for Red Bull.

Still, the Barakos drew strength from Parada's personal conference-high 33 points to beat the Magnolia Beverage Masters, 102-90, for third place in the Smart PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

Parada, who averaged only 16.3 points in the semifinals where Red Bull was swept in four gammes by Barangay Ginebra, also wound up with 11 rebounds, four assists and as many blocked shots while Leo Najorda added a career-high 22.

Together with Cyrus Baguio's 15 points, the Barakos clinched a third straight third place finish that was last achieved by Sta. Lucia Realty (the 1997 Commissioner's Cup to the '98 All-Filipino).

“Best consolation na ito. After our shutout basketball series with Ginebra the least we can do is try and win third,” said Barakos coach Yeng Guiao. “This makes us consistent with our finishes the whole season and it's not bad for a team like ours. Okay na rin ito.”

The victory is made extra special since Magnolia Beverage Masters, formerly known as San Miguel Beer, is the league's winningest with 17 titles and also has the most second runner-up honors with 14.

A 15th was denied, despite Kenneth Bono's career gamme of 15 points and 11 rebounds that led four other Magnolia Beverage Masters who chipped in at least 10 points each.

A very big factor for the Barakos was Magnolia Beverage Masters import Amal McCaskill seeing very limited action due to reported injuries on both knees. He started the gamme but was taken out after only first five minutes, contributing nothing.

Guiao said it is now a matter of renewing the basketball contracts of most of their seven players with expiring pacts and looking forward to their preparations for the coming season that starts October 4.

Guiao revealed that the basketball contracts of Baguio, Mike Hrabak, Topex Robinson, Warren Ybanez and Carlo Sharma are sure to be renewed.

“They're already done deals in principle,” he said. “But first, we have to study the basketball draft prospects because we have a first round pick,” said Guiao, whose basketball team picks ninth overall.

Helping Parada the most in the third period was Baguio's 10 points and Celino Cruz's six which allowed the Barakos to outscore the Beveerage Masters 37-27 to go up by 85-70.

Parada already had 18 points and eight rebounds and Najorda 15 in the first half as Red Bull tried to impose its will in the early goings against a Magnolia Beverage Masters squad that showed a lot of grit despite playing all-Filipino for majority of the basketball gamme.

In fact, the Magnolia Beverage Masters managed to hold their own against the Barakos and even came clambering back from a 70-86 deficit to make it a very manageable 82-86, still plenty of time left.

Behind Parada's steady basketball play and significant contributions from Kiko Adriano, Red Bull quickly re-organized and countered with an 8-0 surge to make it a more comfortable 94-82 count, still 6:14 to go.

Magnolia Beverage Masters would come no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

It was a much tighter contest in the first half, where the Magnolia Beverage Masters jumped the gun on the Barakos for two nine-point leads and kept within striking distance 43-48 at the half.

Mike Cortez and Danny Seigle each had eight points after the first two quarters.

Even rookie Jonas Villanueva chipped in five points in the second quarter, all coming during an 8-2 run that gave Magnolia Beverage Masters its second nine-point lead of the gamme 33-24, 10:21 to go before the break.

But Red Bull simply would not be denied and applied more pressure in the latter part of the quarter and throughout most of the third.

Before Magnolia Beverage Masters knew it, Red Bull had stretched its halftime lead to 15 and to its biggest at 86-70 at the start of the payoff period.

The high emotions riding on the gamme was typified by Sharma, who was ejected with 9:20 left in the fourth period after showing his displeasure on a non-call by throwing the ball on a referee with his basketball team ahead 86-74.

The incident seemed to spark Magnolia Beverage Masters uprising even more as it closed to within four points on a charity split by Dorian Pena. (NCo)

The scores:

Red Bull 102 - Parada 33, Najorda 22, Baguio 15, Adriano 7, Cruz 6, Membrere 5, Bugia 4, Alvarez 4, Duncil 2, Sharma 2, Ybanez 1, Robinson 1, Hrabak 0.

Magnolia 90 - Bono 15, Cortez 13, Tugade 12, Seigle 12, Villanueva 10, Pena 9, Racela 8, Pingris 4, Tolomia 4, Gonzales 2, Eman 1, McCaskill 0, Calaguio 0.

Quarterscores: 22-28, 48-43, 85-70, 102-90.