MANILA, Philippines - Air21 stepped on the gas in the third quarter and hung tough in the face of Alaska Milk’s endgame rally in earning a 92-83 win and the last slot in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs at the Araneta Coliseum last night.
From as low as ninth place, the Express jumped all the way to fifth in winning their last four games in the single-round-robin elimination phase.
In waylaying Alaska, Air21 advanced to the best-of-three quarterfinals versus the same rival, sending B-MEG Derby Ace out of the playoffs together with Meralco, Powerade and San Miguel Beer.
The other quarterfinal match-up pits Barangay Ginebra versus Rain or Shine.
The quarters begin tomorrow at the Cuneta Astrodome with the Kings and the Elasto Painters clashing at 5 p.m. then the Express and the Aces colliding at 7:30 p.m.
“We’re so glad to make the playoffs although we have a job cut out for us in playing Alaska Milk again in the quarters,” said Air21 coach Bong Ramos.
“Though we beat them tonight, we’ll still be the underdogs against them,” Ramos added.
Ginebra, Alaska and Air21 finished the elims with similar 5-4 records. They ended up in that order, though, after applying the quotient tiebreak system.
Talk n Text (8-1) and Smart-Gilas (7-2) made automatic entry into the semis being the elimination-round top two placers.
Air21 came out bristling from the halftime break, zooming to an 18-point spread, 77-59, late in the third period.
An overtime win in its final game gave San Miguel Beer little solace, ending up dead last after losing in the tiebreak for their worst finish in nearly two decades.
Still, the Beermen took the win on a positive note as they look forward to the next conference with a boost in confidence.
San Miguel topped playoff-bound Rain or Shine, 121-117, in overtime, flashing some of its vintage form at the close of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup eliminations.
Import David Young exploded for 42 points and hauled down 12 rebounds then the locals took over in the extension play for the win that came so rare in their forgettable campaign in the mid-season tourney.
“We really worked hard to get this. We wanted to win our last game in the hope of improving our confidence for the next conference,” said San Miguel coach Ato Agustin.
“We don’t intend to rest. We have a program already laid down. We’ll train hard especially our three rookies (Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Noy Baclao and Rey Guevarra),” Agustin said.
The win snapped the Beermen’s six-game losing skid but the effort proved not enough to save the team from finishing dead last in a tourney for the first time in nearly two decades.
Powerade and San Miguel actually wound up with similar 2-7 win-loss records but the Tigers took ninth place via the win-over-the-other rule.
San Miguel, the league’s winningest team with 18 championships, suffered its worst finish since it also ended up in the bottom in the 1986 Third Conference.
It was the conference when SMB returned from a leave of absence bringing in the core group of the Northern Consolidated Cement team.
“We’re determined to redeem ourselves in the third conference. We’ll look for a good import and we’re hopeful we can come back strong,” said Agustin.
Closing out with a 4-5 win-loss card, the Elasto Painters will take on either the Barangay Ginebra Kings or the Alaska Milk Aces in a best-of-three quarterfinals match-up.
Young went 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, 9-of-26 from the two-point zone and 9-of-12 from the stripe as he missed by a point Champ Oguchi’s season-high output of 43 points.
The other SMB starters in Arwind Santos, Danny Ildefonso, Al-Hussaini and Alex Cabagnot added at least 16 points each.
Santos came through with a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
Jay Washington missed the game due to a sore back while Joseph Yeo left the game ahead of the rest after suffering a dislocated right pinkie.
Nelson Beltran, Philippine Star
