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THE
first time they attempted to assume the No. 1 spot,
Air21 came so close, but still came up short.
That
hurt. The Express couldn’t hold on in the closing
minutes so instead, they joined the growing list of
victims of the Alaska Aces, who escaped with an 84-82
decision.
Well,
that was two weeks ago. How about a second chance?
Yes,
opportunity is once again knocking on the door of the
Express, who seem determined to make an impact in the
2008 Smart-Philippine Basketball Association Fiesta Cup.
“Everyone on the team pretty much understands the
significance of this game,” said Air21 coach Bo Perasol
of their 4:50 p.m. date with the Welcoat Dragons today
at the Araneta Coliseum.
Air21 is
coming off a stunning 112-111 victory over the
free-falling Talk ’N Text and is currently tied for
first place with Coca-Cola and Red Bull with a 9-6
(win-loss) record.
The
prospect of succeeding appears brighter this time around
unless, of course, the Express experience another major
meltdown.
To make
sure his troops don’t mess up this time, Perasol urged
his players “to keep on aiming high and be consistent
with what [we] do.”
In their
first meeting that took place two-and-a-half months ago,
Air21 downed Welcoat, 105-96. Nothing much has changed
from there as the Dragons (4-11) struggled and lost
seven of their last nine games.
With
only three more games remaining in their campaign, the
Dragons have become a strong candidate for elimination.
Nevertheless, team coowners Terry Que and Raymund Yu
indicated that they are not going down without a fight.
In the
hope of staying in contention—at least for a wild card
berth—management decided to terminate American guard
Corey Santee in favor of assistant coach Alex Compton.
It
appeared like a sound decision on the part of
management, but whether they admit it or not, the move
came a little bit too late.
Nevertheless, the possibility of the Dragons getting
back at the Express isn’t completely remote.
And you
bet Alaska coach Tim Cone and his Aces would be rooting
for the Dragons.
That’s
because a loss by Air21, coupled by a victory by Alaska
in its 7:20 p.m. encounter with slumping Sta. Lucia,
will enable the Aces (8-6) to tie for the lead.
The Aces
are on a six-game winning streak but Cone is wary their
long rest might take away their momentum.
Alaska
has four more games remaining on its schedule and Cone
considers them as “very tough games.” After Sta. Lucia,
the Aces battle Barangay Ginebra, followed by Coca-Cola
before closing out their elimination-round campaign
against Magnolia.
“We know
it won’t last forever [winning streak]…so we just keep
on going. We’ll see how far it goes,” Cone said.
After an
impressive start, things went sour for the Realtors
(7-8), who have been struggling in the second round of
the eliminations.
The
reigning Philippine Cup champions have lost four in a
row—the last a 74-80 defeat to Magnolia Friday—and are
now in danger of being relegated to the wild card. |
