Marinerong Pilipino seeks an all-important victory against AMA Online Education on Thursday to avoid complications that could spoil its entry into the quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association Developmental League Foundation Cup.
Given up for dead two weeks ago, the Skippers battled back into contention with a string of four victories against Racal Motors, Zarks Burger, Wang’s Basketball and Gamboa Coffee Mix.
A fourth straight win against the Titans in their 1 p.m. duel will cement their place in the next round.
“Miracles still happen. I hope we pull off another one,” said Marinerong Pilipino Coach Koy Banal in the aftermath of his team’s 138-69 demolition of the Coffee Lovers on Monday.
For added motivation, Marinerong Pilipino stands a chance to clinch a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals should it finish the eliminations with 6-4 record coupled with losses by Batangas (5-3) in its last two games and Centro Escolar University (CEU,5-4) drops its last outing against Gamboa Coffee Mix on Tuesday.
It would be a heartbreaker though should Marinerong Pilipino finished the eliminations with a 5-5 card and tied with CEU, Batangas and Wangs Basketball the three remaining playoff berths.
Under the rules, ties will be broken by the quotient system. Based on computation, the Skippers will have the inferior quotient effectively leaving them out of the playoffs.
Batangas also try to spare itself of the possible complication by also going for win against free falling Gamboa Coffee (1-8). The game is set at 5 p.m. following the 3 o’clock face-off between Racal Motors (3-5) and Tanduay (7-2).
“Our opponent is a very experienced team. If they play with pride at any given time, they could pull off a win. Hopefully, we’ve learned our lessons from past downfalls and take it as our motivation going forward,” Gonzales said.