Valenzuela faces fine, suspension

Ginebra forward Junthy Valenzuela faces severe sanction for punching Air21’s KG Canaleta, causing his outright ejection from their KFC PBA Philippine Cup showdown at the Araneta Coliseum last Friday.

Valenzuela could well be suspended and fined after a meeting with commissioner Sonny Barrios in the PBA office today.

San Miguel’s Dorian Pena, Red Bull’s Carlo Sharma and Purefoods’ Rico Villanueva have also been summoned by Barrios for separate infractions in their recent games.

Pena and Sharma traded hard fouls in their game Saturday, while Villanueva was called for a flagrant foul in their contest versus Rain or Shine, also over the weekend.

Pena, Sharma and Villanueva are also expected to be sanctioned by the PBA.

Meanwhile, Air21 power forward Ranidel de Ocampo was named KFC Accel Player of the Week for the period Dec. 3-7 for his sterling exploits that helped the Express post back-to-back victories over Ginebra and Sta. Lucia Realty.

He churned out 16 points and 11 rebounds in their 102-84 rout of the Kings Friday and 23 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two steals and one shot block in their 97-88 victory over the Realtors Sunday.

Those back-to-back wins propelled the Express back to the upper half of the chart with an 8-7 win-loss card, fifth behind the Alaska Milk Aces (10-4), the San Miguel Beermen (9-6), the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (9-6) and the Talk n Text Tropang Texters (8-6).

“That’s our target to be back in the Magic Five and stay there up to the end of the elimination round. We don’t want to be at No. 6 because it’s the same as Nos. 7-9. We don’t want to go through the wildcard round,” said De Ocampo, back in the RP training pool for the Fiba Asia championship next year.

The top two after the elims gain outright entry into the semis, the next three clinch automatic berth in the quarterfinals with the next four figuring in the wildcard round. The last placer is out of the playoffs.