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THE
suspension of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)
games on Sunday could be a blessing in disguise for
Alaska.
Battling
for at least an automatic quarterfinal seat in the
ongoing PBA Fiesta Cup, the Aces’ main man, Willie
Miller, was supposed to miss a very crucial encounter
against Barangay Ginebra.
Miller
is stricken with the chickenpox and is expected to be
out for at least a week. He contracted the disease
Tuesday.
 But
because of Typhoon Frank, the league decided to cancel
the double-header featuring Red Bull and Sta. Lucia in
the first game and Alaska and Ginebra in the second
game. League officials said that the postponed matches
will be rescheduled, temporarily on July 6 at the Cuneta
Astrodome.
Alaska
is currently in the middle of the pack with eight wins
and seven losses and has three games left in the
elimination round.
Aces
head coach Tim Cone said Miller’s uncertain status is a
big blow in their bid for a seat in the quarterfinals,
and even probably a shot for one of the two automatic
semifinal slots.
“We’re
not sure if he will be available next game,” Cone said,
as Alaska faces Coca-Cola on Friday at the Araneta
Coliseum. “We’ll just make the necessary adjustments.”
After
the Tigers, Cone and his wards face the Magnolia
Beverage Masters this Sunday also at the Big Dome.
But the
reigning Most Valuable Player could be available in the
team’s last assignment against the Kings, depending on
his recovery period.
Alaska
is the defending champion of the Fiesta Conference. The
Aces beat Talk ‘N Text in the classic best-of-seven
championship series last year via the full route.
Meanwhile, four more amateur standouts have signified
their intention to join the Rookie Draft this August at
the Market! Market! in Taguig City.
De La
Salle’s Pocholo Villanueva, Kelvin Gregorio of the
University of the East and National University’s
Jonathan Fernandez submitted their applications Monday
at the PBA Office through their agent Charlie Dy.
Coplayers of the Week
HAVING
ace gunners come in as relievers is a luxury few teams
in the Smart-Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)
Fiesta Conference can boast of.
Because
when those players come through with clutch points when
they’re needed most, then the fruits of the gambit are
made much sweeter.
Such
were the identical cases for Magnolia and Talk ’N Text,
which respectively had Lordy Tugade and Ren-Ren Ritualo
churning out the much-needed baskets at the crunch and
enabling their teams to fashion morale-boosting wins in
the week that was.
Those
feats also earned for the duo the Smart/Accel-PBA Press
Corps’ Coplayers of the Week for the period June 16 to
22.
“He came
up big for us at crunch time,” said Magnolia coach Siot
Tanquingcen of Tugade, who was very instrumental in the
Beverage Masters’ 81-77 win over the Coca-Cola Tigers on
Friday.
“His
drives to the basket and offensive rebounds show he’s a
complete package,” Tanquingcen added of the
six-foot-three forward, who finished with a team-high 14
points, going with three rebounds and an assist in 20
minutes of off-the-bench action.
The
Alaminos (Pangasinan) native scored nine of his points
in the fourth quarter and all but one of Magnolia’s last
seven points, including a tip-in off a Danny Ildefonso
miss that pushed them ahead to stay at 78-76.
Equally
impressive was Ritualo in TNT’s 102-101 squeaker over
Purefoods that snapped the Phone Pals out of a
distressing five-game skid.
The
Three-Point King in the recent All-Star Weekend in
Bacolod buried the Giants, not with a triple but with a
double-pump jumper from the top of the key in the last
6.4 seconds that turned out to be the deciding basket.
“He’s
been working hard on adding more to his game than just
the three-point shot and his work paid off,” said TNT
coach Chot Reyes. “Good for us.”
In all,
the six-foot shooter scattered 16 points, a rebound, two
assists and as many steals in a 23-minute relief job as
the Phone Pals moved up to the .500 mark with an 8-8
win-loss record. They also solidified their bid for an
outright berth in the playoffs.
Magnolia, meanwhile, enhanced its bid for an outright
semifinals seat as it caught up with Coca-Cola at third
place with their similar 9-7 cards, slates that lay
behind Air21’s league-leading 10-6 and Red Bull’s 9-6.
Both
Tanquingcen and Reyes know tougher work lies ahead.
“This is
a good win for us, but we still have yet to achieve
anything,” said Tanquingcen, inadvertently echoing
Reyes’ sentiments.
With
aces like Tugade and Ritualo up their sleeves, both
coaches also know their goals are achievable. |
