B Pier seek series sweep vs Protectors

Harbour Centre tries to nail down the first finals berth with a sweep of Hapee Toothpaste in their best of five semifinal duel in the PBL PG Flex Linoleum Cup at The Arena in San Juan City today.

The Batang Pier continued to reassert their mastery over the Complete Protectors, scoring an 85-62 rout in the series opener and then hanging tough for a 72-66 win in the second game.

Game 3 is set at 2 p.m. with the Batang Pier heavily fancied to prevail again for the first seat in the final.

Clashing at 4 p.m. are Bacchus Energy and Magnolia Purewater with both teams going for a crucial win in their own semis duel.

With Paul Lee and Orlando Daroya on the firing end, the Energy Warriors pulled off an 87-83 win last Saturday to level their series at 1-1.

Meantime, the Harbour-Hapee tussle will be shown live over C/S 9 while the game between Magnolia and Bacchus will also be aired live on Basketball TV.

Despite a commanding 2-0 lead, Harbour coach Jorge Gallent remains wary of their chances to sweep the Complete Protectors for the second time in four playoff meetings since 2006.

Harbour dominated Hapee in their best-of-five title series in 2006 to win their second championship then the Batang Pier took their fourth and fifth titles also at expense of Hapee.

“I have to remind my players that to win the series, we have to win three games, so I told them that the fight is far from over. We still need to play as hard and aggressive as we can in Game 3,” said Gallent.

After a runaway win in Game 1, the Batang Pier needed the late-game heroics of rookie guard Mark Barroca to foil the Complete Protecors. The 5-foot-11 Barroca scored four of his 10 points in the last two minutes to seal the victory for the Batang Pier.