Their morale boosted by their thrilling 78-73 overtime win over defending champion Hapee Toothpaste two days back, the Paint Masters are installed heavy favorites when they collide with the Jewels at 4 p.m.
Clashing in the opening game at 2 p.m. are Toyota Otis-Letran and Lee Pipes-Ateneo with the Eagles desperately seeking to notch their first win in five starts which they hope would turn their fortunes around. Both games will be again shown live on Studio 23.
Despite hurdling the biggest test in their campaign this early — beating Hapee is one of their two ultimate objectives this conference and winning the title is the other, Welcoat coach Caloy Garcia is not about to rejoice this early.
"We have to stay focus and we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by our recent success," beamed Garcia. "There will be no let up for us until we achieve our goal."
The Paint Masters, backstopped then by several marquee players who have all turned pro a few months back, were heavily favored to win the Platinum Cup but lost the title to the more determined Hapee squad in a title series that produced several firsts in the league, including drawing the biggest crowd after a long, long while.
Learning a lesson or two from that humbling experience, the youthful Garcia believes his boys are eager to make amends this time around as shown during their game against the Teeth Sparklers where they played with lots of passion and fire as typified by
Jojo Tangkay and Chester Tolomia.
Tangkay and Tolomia exploded for 23 and 22 points, respectively, as they joined forces to repel Hapee’s repeated rallies. Actually, it was Tolomia who delivered the telling blows when he banged in two triples in the extra period.
The Jewels, toting 1-4 record, will be handled this time by Ronnie Dojillo after head coach Bong Go resigned last Monday for health reasons. The team is reportedly eyeing veteran coach Tonichi Yturri to handle the team later on.
The Knights lost their first two games but bounced back mightily by winning their last two games, including posting a 70-64 win over Sunkist-UST last week.
Credit the team‚s sudden turnaround from mediocrity to the splendid games of Ronjay Enrile and Boyet Bautista who form Toyota Otis-Letran‚s double-barreled attack with their devil-may-care drives and razor-sharp sniping from the perimeter area.
The 5-foot-8 Bautista will be up against veteran LA Tenorio while Enrile is expected to be challenged by either BJ Manalo or Larry Fonacier.