PBL Final Four: Toyota faces Cebuana; Harbour vs Henkel
Cebuana Lhuillier takes on Toyota Balintawak while Harbour Centre clashes with Henkel-Sista in a pair of blockbuster match-ups kicking off the best-of-three semifinal round of the PBL Unity Cup at The Arena in
With Ken Bono, Doug Kramer, wily playmaker Macky Escalona and a pair of veterans in Erick dela Cuesta and Ariel Capuz leading the way, the Moneymen emerged No. 1 at the end of the two-round elims with a 10-2 card and will go into the 2 p.m. game the slight favorites over the Roadkings, who had to go through a wringer before disposing of the Burger King Whoppers to advance.
Against the Moneymen, the Roadkings would be facing a team, which dominated them in their last three meetings.
But
“With the way Joe performed, I think he can match up with Bono or Kramer,” said Vanguardia, who is out to steer the team to their first-ever championship.
The defending champion Batang Pier, meanwhile, will lean on the likes of JC Castro, JC Intal, Chico Lanete and Ryana Arana to scuttle Henkel-Sista’s bid and firm up their championship bid to three.
Not since Stag won three straight in the mid-90s has a team pocketed three titles in a row, and scoring a grand slam of sort will be a motivation for the
But the Caloy Garcia-mentored Super Sealers are no pushovers despite losing twice to the Batang Pier in their head-to-head duel.
Garcia is again expected to rely on prolific guard Ryan Reyes and the troika of former
“We’ll have to limit Ryan’s output to eight. If we can do that, then we’ll have good chances of beating the Super Sealers,” said Harbour youthful team manager Erick Arejola. “Since we have a lot of players who can deliver offensively, it’s paramount that we have to play tough and honest defense.”
Gallent agreed, saying: “This is already a the semis, this is the time where we have to play smart basketball from start to finish.”
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