MANILA, 12 January 2007 — Air21 worked hard early and almost paid the price for finishing with a whimper.
The Express nearly blew a 32-point third quarter lead, needing to dig deep in the final minutes before pounding out a 111-106 decision of also-ran Coca-Cola that sealed a playoff for the last quarterfinal slot in the PBA Philippine Cup.
Mark Telan scored 21 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds to lead the Express, who will clash with on and off Sta. Lucia tomorrow for the right to join three other teams in the first round of the playoffs.
“Although I don’t like the way we won, it still gives us a shot (at advancing),” coach Bo Perasol said. “One thing is for sure, we can’t play like that (in the playoff) because we will definitely lose.”
Air21 broke the game open with a 34-point second quarter, taking a 58-40 lead into the third period only to lose steam in the fourth as the Tigers clawed to within five points on several occasions leading into the final two minutes.
Nino Canaleta, the high-flying 6ft 7” off-guard canned two charities with under 30 seconds remaining for the cushion the Express needed.
“I am hoping that we come up with the same intensity (on Friday) the way we did when we beat them last week,” Perasol added, referring to a blowout victory over the Realtors at the start of the wild card phase today.
A 122-99 decision of the Realtors less than a week ago triggered an impressive Air21 run in this round as the Express availed of the incentive that grants a playoff to any team that sweeps the wild card. “We knew that it (sweep) was our only chance. That’s why the players worked so hard to achieve that.”
Aside from Telan, there were also three other players who finished with double-doubles for Perasol as Ranidel de Ocampo scored 19 points to go with 10 board, rookie Arwind Santos shooting 11 and pulling down 10 and old hand Wynne Arboleda scoring 15 and dishing out 10 feeds.
Winning is not only good for a team heading into a playoff, but the way the Express performed as a team speaks volumes of how ready they are against the Realtors.
Sta. Lucia, on the other hand, dropped a 91-99 decision to Alaska in the first game, an outcome that meant nothing for the Realtors other than the fact that they will come into the KO match the losers of their last game.
Coach Tim Cone and his staff were already busy mapping out strategies for the next tournament.
“I’m just hoping that all those adversities that we went through (in this conference) would make us stronger,” Cone said. “There were lessons (in this tournament), but I don’t think we’ve learned all of them,” added Cone. “Because you know you’ve learned them when you start winning.”
What started out, as a season full of promise became a nightmarish ride in some stretches for the affable American, who missed making a tournament quarterfinal for the first time in a well-documented career?
Point guard Mike Cortez, the team’s cornerstone, was carried off in a stretcher because of an ACL tear just four games into the season, and things went from bad to worse. Injuries to Reynel Hugnatan and John Ferriols compounded matters, and a five-game losing streak early in the tournament proved to be too deep a hole even for such a talented team like Alaska to come out from.
“We had a real bad early stretch,” Cone said. “And we just never really recovered from that.”
Alaska, the PBA’s most dominant team last decade with 10 titles, including a rare grand slam in 1996, won the league’s first-ever preseason tournament only to finish eighth or joint seventh at the highest.
“We just were not able to finish games the way we needed to,” said Cone, who reminded everyone that his team lost by 10 points just once the entire tournament despite a depleted roster.
Jeffrey Cariaso led the way with 17 points, with Ferriols chipping in 16 as the Aces survived the loss of a 16-point lead with steady shooting in the stretch.
The Realtors, meanwhile, were led by Alex Cabagnot’s 19 markers with super rookie Kelly Williams finishing with a career-low five markers after going 1-of-13 from the field.
