It’s do or die for four teams

The fact that Coca-Cola missed by a hairline an outright semifinal seat hardly makes the Tigers comfortable as they return to the playing court for the Selecta PBA All-Filipino Cup quarterfinals today.

And they seem to have valid reasons.

First and foremost, it doesn’t matter now that Coca-Cola is seeded No. 1 in the quarters ahead of Talk N Text, Alaska Milk and Sta. Lucia Realty. The twice-to-beat incentive is not being used, and the four teams, instead, figure in a pair of knockout matches to decide the two joining Red Bull and San Miguel Beer in the semifinals.

Red Bull plays the winner in the Alaska-Talk N Text tussle while San Miguel goes up against the victor of the Sta. Lucia-Coca-Cola match. The semifinals is a best-of-three affair.

Versus Sta. Lucia, coach Chot Reyes thinks his Tigers somehow are at a disadvantage since they’re coming off a nine-day layoff while the Realtors ride the momentum of two morale-boosting victories in the last five days.

Reyes also cites injuries to his two slotmen -- Chris Bolado and Rafi Reavies -- making Coca-Cola an even smaller team.

"The good thing is that my teams are raring to do the job the hard way it may be," said Reyes on the eve of the knockout quarters set at the Araneta Coliseum.

"Again, it’s going to be size versus speed," Reyes also said, hinting at a running game which has become their bread and butter in the season-ending tourney.

Sta. Lucia coach Norman Black is expecting Coca-Cola to run at every opportunity, thus, he is looking forward for his team to control the boards.

"We need to make one more stop to make it to the long road. Hopefully, we can find some energy between now and Sunday to keep up with them," said Black as his Realtors finally made it to the quarters Friday after surviving knockout games versus San Miguel and Shell.

The Tigers have long ended their elimination round campaign and already safe in the quarters when the Realtors figured in their last two games. But Reyes said they were not able to prepare against Sta. Lucia until yesterday as they thought they would be up against Purefoods in the quarters.

Teams which could have prepared very well against each other are Alaska Milk and Talk N Text.

The Phone Pals beat the Aces, 73-66, in their elimination-round tiff but the two teams wound up with similar 5-4 win-loss cards.

Both are highly motivated in this tourney with the Aces seeking to relive a winning tradition in the All-Filipino and the Phone Pals hoping to finally end a search for a first-ever championship. Alaska has won three All-Filipino crowns thus far.

Talk N Text coach Paul Woolpert thinks they have a job cut out for them against coach Tim Cone and his Aces. Cone doesn’t take Woolpert and his Phone Pals lightly either.