MANILA: At the rate they’re playing of late, it seems that there’s no team in the Fiesta Cup is capable of stopping the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings at this time.
Just look at the fate suffered by Coca-Cola last night.
The Kings shot close to 60% from the field and mangled the Tigers black-and-blue, 122-85, winning for the seventh straight time and stay in the running toward snatching an outright Final Four slot in the season-ending tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.
Seven players, led by Ronald Tubid’s 20 points, scored 11 or more for the Kings, who upped their record to 8-5 to tie idle Rain or Shine and Burger King for second and keep a solid shot at wriggling out of that logjam against Alaska tomorrow.
The Aces, on the other hand, made sure that they would come into that crucial game with some form of momentum after erasing an 18-point fourth quarter deficit in the second game to prevail, 122-115 in overtime over Talk ‘N Text in the second game.
A win by Ginebra over Alaska tomorrow would enable the Kings to join idle San Miguel in the Final Four outright, while a loss would create a playoff between the Kings and Rain or Shine for the No. 2 spot.
That scenario would relegate Burger King to No. 4 because of an inferior quotient compared to Ginebra and the Elasto Painters.
The Kings needed just two quarters to polish off the Tigers, taking a 53-28 lead at the half before taking several 30-plus point advantages the rest of the way. Ginebra even surged ahead by 42 late in the game.
It was the biggest margin of victory this season and was the second largest winning margin in the last 16 years for the franchise.
The Tigers took the third worst lost in their PBA existence and dropped to 5-8, now tied with Alaska for eighth spot. Coca-Cola clashes with San Miguel tomorrow to close out its elimination round and would need no less than a win to avoid the dreaded No. 9 spot.
Tournament format calls for the Nos. 9 and 10 teams to play Nos. 4 and 3, respectively, in the wildcard, needing to beat the higher ranked teams twice to stay alive. Barako Bull is the 10th-placed squad with a 2-12 record.
“We just shot so well tonight,” Ginebra’s Jong Uichico said. “Coupled with the fact that we caught them (Tigers) in their off night, we won by that big margin. But we still need nine wins to make it outright.”
Rosell Ellis led the Aces with 38 points, 12 in the third quarter and 16 in the fourth, before letting his local crew do the mop-up job after falling to cramps with under two minutes left in overtime.
For the Tropang Texters, it was a bitter pill to swallow since they surged ahead, 91-73, after a Rashad Bell triple with nine minutes left only to lose steam during the most important time.
They lost the chance to gain a playoff for the No. 2 spot in case Ginebra loses tomorrow, and will be in the knockout stage of the wildcard with a 7-7 tally.
Meanwhile, Philippine Team coach Yeng Guiao, in thinking of just bringing in the “healthiest” team possible, yesterday dropped Alaska ‘s Sonny Thoss from the roster that will play in the Southeast Asian Games Basketball Association championship next month.
The Alaska center, who has been nursing tendonitis in his left knee for some two months now, thus joined Sta. Lucia’s Kelly Williams as alternates to the team that is heavily favored to win in Medan, Indonesia.
“The decision of coach Yeng was based only on one criteria — health considerations,” PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios told scribes after making his announcement of the roster. “The two least healthy were not included.”
