SAN Miguel Beer shoots for a share of the lead with a win against a depleted Purefoods five in the main game of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Beermen and the Hot Shots clash at 5:15 p.m., while Barako Bull and GlobalPort face off in the opener at 3 p.m., with both teams eyeing to barge into the win column.
San Miguel had a first game of the season, beating tournament darkhorse Rain or Shine, 87-79, to give Head Coach Leo Austria a rousing debut with the Beermen.
“It’s a different system. Ibang-iba ito. This is my own system. ’Yung dating sistema, inalis na namin,” said Austria, who assumed the post two months ago from Gee Abanilla.
Austria added that the players are up to the challenge now especially after a series of misfortunes despite having one of the solid rosters in the league.
“Everybody is trying to do well especially ’yung mga beterano because we’ve been criticized. They’ve been expecting a lot from this team,” he added.
San Miguel is facing an undermanned Purefoods quintet, which lost sophomore foreward Ian Sangalang the rest of the tournament after the former San Sebastian College standout suffered a tear in his ACL during the team’s 73-93 loss to Alaska.
Purefoods, the defending champion for the whole season, also missed the services of Gilas forward Marc Pingris in that game against the Aces and remains doubtful for Sunday’s match. “It was certainly an inauspicious debut for us. Alaska sent us a very strong and clear message that last season is definitely over,” Hot Shots mentor Tim Cone said.
“Now with Ian [Sangalang] expected to be out for the rest of the conference, our job got that much harder. Still it was just the first game and there’s no reason to panic at this point.” With Sangalang and Pingris’s status uncertain, Purefoods hopes to draw big games from James Yap, Peter June Simon and Mark Barroca to offset the frontline edge of San Miguel, led by reigning Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo.
In the first game, Batang Pier and the Energy battle for their first win after disappointing finishes from their previous matches. Barako Bull lost to Meralco, 108-112, in double over time, spoiling the PBA debut of Head Coach Koy Banal, while GlobalPort failed to sustain its hot start and yielded a 101-96 decision to newcomer NLEX.
Batang Pier’s defeat triggered wild speculations that Head Coach Pido Jarencio is on his way out and will be replaced by Franz Pumaren but the management denied this and Jarencio remains as the mentor of the squad as of this time.
Image credits: PBA Image