By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
THE elimination round of the PBA Philippine Cup goes into overdrive today with the Alaska Aces and NLEX Road Warriors disputing the last quarterfinal spot in the season-opening Philippine Basketball Association tournament.
Knotted at 4-7 for joint eighth place, the Aces and Road Warriors play to break the tie and, in the process, advance to the next round, in their one-game playoff set at 7 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Alaska had its chances to advance to the quarterfinals complication-free but back-to-back losses to end its elimination-round bid did not help its cause.
The Aces rued the missed the opportunity but nonetheless admitted they did not do enough to propel their push.
They, however, are hopefully and determined to catch the playoff bus even via the back door.
“I hope we get a chance,” said Alaska coach Alex Compton heading into today’s game.
“We’re going to practice and make the most of that sliver of hope that we have,” he added.
NLEX, for its part, also had a grand chance to move to the quarterfinals outright but failed to seize it after being on the receiving end of a 102-74 shellacking at the hands of the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok on Wednesday.
A win would have thrust the Road Warriors directly to the next round.
NLEX competed early on in their previous game but just could not sustain the fight the rest of the way as they slumped to the tough loss.
Highlighting its struggle against Magnolia was that it only had one player scoring in double digits in Bong Galanza, who had 10 points.
It is something the team hopes to address as it tries to salvage its tournament.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the seven teams advancing to the quarterfinals were known, with Magnolia and Northport Batang Pier finding their spots.
With their win over NLEX, the Hotshots (6-5) secured the sixth seed while the Batang Pier (5-6) are at seventh after beating the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings, 100-97.
Magnolia faces off with third-seeded Barangay Ginebra in a best-of-three “Manila Clasico” quarterfinals.
Northport, meanwhile, is to battle second-seeded Rain or Shine Elasto Painters where it will be having a twice-to-win disadvantage.
Other casts of the quarterfinals are top seeds Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters, fourth seeds TNT KaTropa and fifth seeds San Miguel Beermen.
The PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals kick off this weekend at the Mall of Asia.