Petron Blaze Boosters Basketball Updates

Photo Credit: PBA.ph

For the last time this conference, the San Miguel Beermen and Barangay Ginebra Kings clash in a winner-take-all knockout Sunday.

The series is tied at 1 game apiece with the winner advancing to the semifinals against the waiting Talk N Text Tropang Texters.

It will be a battle of defense and execution. For San Miguel to win this series, they should display the kind of sticky defense they put up against Barangay Ginebra in Game 1. The Gin Kings thrives on outside shooting specially from beyond the arc so it is a must for perimeter defenders to extend their defense.

Every possession is important so the Beermen should limit their turnovers and the rotation of players should be balance, meaning there should be enough offensive threat among every 5 players playing on the hardcourt. This would prevent a scoring drought that we experienced for about 5 minutes in third quarter in Game 2.

I can’t wait to watch the game tonight. It will probably be an exciting or classic one. For the rest of game preview, enjoy sports journalist Zean Macamay of Journal Online (journal.com.ph) has in store for you below.

Do or die
By: Zean Macamay
Game Today: (Cuneta Astrodome)
6 p.m. – Ginebra vs San Miguel Beer

VERY few coaches would involve luck in game outcomes. Normally, it’s the hard work that really spells the big difference.

But to Ginebra coach Jong Uichico, sometimes the breaks of the game matter the most.

“I just hope we get lucky,” said Uichico shortly after the Gin Kings held what could perhaps be their last workout session for the conference yesterday. “It’s jut another let-it-all-out game for us.”

A team that has never been complete the entire tournament and now on the brink of overcoming great odds, Ginebra tonight goes for the one victory that means almost everything, taking on sister team and mighty San Miguel Beer in a do-or-die game for the last semifinals berth in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup at the Astrodome.

Uichico knows they are the underdogs, and realizes what kind of effort his boys have to exert in order to fill up the absences left by the injured Mark Caguioa and Rafi reavies. But somehow, he has gotten what he needed.

He drew a big game from Ronald Tubid, a key basket each from Jun-Jun Cabatu and Junthy Valenzuela in Game Two of their quarterfinals series en route to another pulsating 91-88 win that set up an unexpected knockout match against a Beermen team that’s facing a third do-or-die match this conference.

San Miguel, which won Game One in a cliffhanger 78-77, is a team coming out of the wild card. It survived Coca-Cola and then Air21 in a pair of knockout matches, making coach Siot Tanquingcen believe that they are now a tougher team than before.

Once again, he will know whether they are really that tough.

“It’s another do-or-die game for us,” he said. “We just have to make sure that we execute well and also make it a point not to let the crowd get involved in the game.”

The Beermen didn’t execute both on offense and on defense in Game Two early, trailing by as many as 18 points (61-43). Only when did they unleash a huge run in the third that the game got appealing, tying the game at 70-70 in the fourth quarter.

Still, victory wasn’t meant to be. Cabatu hit a triple to tie the count at 85-85, and Valenzuela then blew past three defenders on a drive to hit on a bank shot that gave the Gin Kings the lead for good, 87-86.

It was a defeat that put to naught the performance of Dondon Hontiveros, who scored 25 second-half points on the way to a career-high output of 35, erasing his previous best of 33 he set when he was still a rookie with Tanduay in 2000.

Yet, another performance like that would be badly wanted by Tanquingcen, who has yet to lose to Uichico in a series after winning the 2004-05 Philippine Cup semifinals and then the 2007 Fiesta Cup quarterfinals.

Uichico, for his part, would really savor the sweet taste of success if he ever reaches the Final Four.

While everyone is focused on Game Three, the winner will surely have its hands full by the time the best-of-seven semifinals begin.