Stalled by Red Bull and Talk n Text in their last two games, Coca-Cola gained outright entry into the Gran Matador Brandy PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals just the same as the Tigers stopped the Air21 Express, 87-73, in their playoff duel last night at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Tigers came out growing in the second and fourth quarters, nailing the elusive victory that lined them up for a best-of-five quarterfinals showdown against the Alaska Milk Aces.
Failing to sustain the momentum of their two-win closing run in the classification round, the Express were relegated to the wildcard play, needing to contend with the Barangay Ginebra Kings, the Talk n Text Phone Pals and the Sta. Lucia Realtors for the fourth and last seat in the quarters.
The wildcard round begins Wednesday with the Express and the Realtors clashing at 4:40 p.m. and the Kings and the Phone Pals mixing it up at 7:35 p.m. The topnotcher after a single round-robin among these four teams set up a quarters match-up with Red Bull.
"It’s just amazing how everybody stepped up and contributed for the team’s cause," said Coca-Cola coach Binky Favis.
"Before the game, I told the boys the only way for us to beat Air21 is for us to play defense and really work together. They did more than that. They kept on responding," Favis added.
The Tigers defied the odds as ace scorer William Antonio was sidelined with a sprained left ankle.
"I thought we would have a big match-up problem minus Antonio. But my players who haven’t seeing much action were just too willing to step up, particularly Gerard Francisco," said Favis.
The Tigers made a huge 21-point swing in the second quarter, erecting a 15-point spread at 48-33 after trailing by six, 21-27, at the start of the period.
John Arigo had a chance to stretch the lead to 17 but muffed a driving lay-up against Wynne Arboleda, paving the way for a 5-0 closing run by Air21 that narrowed the gap to 10, 48-38, at halftime.
Rafi Reavis executed two thunderous jams to highlight Coke’s vicious second-quarter attack.
The Express dominated the boards with Ranidel de Ocampo accounting for five of their 16 rebounds as they took control in the opening period though beaten by the Tigers in field-goal shooting.