by Jonas Terrado
The Aces face the Blackwater Elite in the first game at 4:30 p.m. before the KaTropa take on the Star Hotshots at 6:45 p.m. The two teams are tied for third at 4-3, half-game behind the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the Globalport Batang Pier.
Globalport and Rain or Shine hold similar 5-3 records, with the Batang Pier coming off a 110-96 win over the NLEX Road Warriors and the Elasto Painters absorbing a heartbreaking 107-101 defeat to the San Miguel Beermen in their games held two days ago at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Both teams expect a dogfight in today’s doubleheader, with Blackwater needing a win in order to gain a good position before the playoffs while Star can’t afford to suffer a loss since another would put them way behind the race for at least the eighth spot.
“Hindi pwedeng hindi magrelax sa mga remaining games. Kailangan naming pumukpok dito dahil may chance pa din kami na mag-top two,” said Alaska forward Calvin Abueva, who had 23 points and nine rebounds against Star.
Aces coach Alex Compton was glad to see his team come away with a hard-fought victory, praising not only Abueva and Vic Manuel, but also veteran forward Tony dela Cruz and Jaypee Mendoza who provided the intangibles in the second half.
Center Sonny Thoss made his season debut for the Aces after coming off a knee injury, but Compton said the veteran will have his minutes checked before he gets to play a key role for the team.
Blackwater is sharing sixth and seventh places with Phoenix at 4-4 after losing its last two games. Another could put the Elite in eighth, depending on their match and last night game of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel against Meralco in Iloilo City.
Ginebra entered the game being played at presstime with a 3-4 record.
Meanwhile, TNT will play its first game since suffering a disappointing 110-98 loss to NLEX in an out-of-town game at the Angeles University Foundation campus in Angeles City, Pampanga last Jan. 7.
TNT coach Nash Racela rued his team’s 23 turnovers while still finding ways to get in the groove heading into the final stretch of the eliminations.
“Again, we want to change a lot of things. But you can’t really change that overnight. It takes time. Ang importante is we identify things one by one. I think that’s how we will progress,” said Racela.
