Devon Scott of San Miguel Beer finds himself in trouble against Kevin Racal and Jeron Teng of Converge during their quarterfinal match in the PBA Comissioner’s Cup at the Philsports Arena in Pasig. The Beermen won.
Photo by Ernie Sarmiento
Brace for PBA wars
BRACE for war in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinal round starting Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
Top seed Bay Area battles defending champion San Miguel Beer and No.2 Magnolia takes on crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra in a pair of best-of-five semifinal matches that could go the full distance.
Although the Dragons and the Hotshots finished 1-2 at the end of the elimination round, experts predict a close fight in both series with the Beermen and the Kings now playing at full strength.
Bay Area and Magnolia easily dispatched their lower-ranked quarterfinal opponents last Dec. 9, while San Miguel and Ginebra swept their respective rivals in best-of-three matches to advance to the semis.
Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian said he is thrilled to get a shot at the defending champion San Miguel.
“This is not the same San Miguel team that we saw in the regular season with (Terrence) Romeo in the team now, the big fellow (June Mar Fajardo) back and their overall depth. It’s gonna be a real challenge for us,” said Goorjian after Bay Area’s semis-clinching 126-96 win over RAin or Shine last Dec.9.
“I’m just so excited that we’re in the top four of the PBA in our first year. Tremendous accomplishment and we get to step up to the plate and get a swing at the champs. Couldn’t ask for more.”
Bay Area defeated San Miguel, 113-87, in their lone elimination round meeting last Oct. 16.
But interim coach Jorge Gallent believes that San Miguel can be at least at par with Bay Area.
“Size-wise, we are kinda okay with them We have guys that can match up with them. We have talented big guys also. I won’t have a problem also. When we played them, it was Nicholson as the import. We can watch videos (of their first game) and see what went wrong and what we can do to improve in our series.””
The Magnolia-Ginebra showdown is also expected to be close and interesting.
“We’ve had so many battles with that team. We know them well, they know us well and they know what we like to do,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.
Focus of attention eill be the battle of imports between Nick Rakocevic of Magnolia and Justin Brownlee of Ginebra.
In the elims, Ginebra bested Magnolia 103-97.
Games Wednesday:
(Philsports Arena)
3 p.m. — San Miguel vs. Bay Area
5:45 p.m. — Ginebra vs, Magnolia
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