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Phoenix aims to bolster playoff bid, Blackwater tries to stay alive
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PHOENIX tries to solidify its hold on a quarterfinals berth Wednesday when it battles a Blackwater squad aiming to at least snap out of its tailspin in the PBA Governors Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
A third straight victory and a fifth in nine games by the Fuel Masters would practically assure their passage into the eight-team quarterfinals while quashing whatever hopes the Elite may have of entering the playoffs via the backdoor.
A seventh straight loss by Blackwater would mean the most wins it could hope for is three, which would still be short of NLEX’s and Rain or Shine’s 4-5 record that has the Road Warriors and Elasto Painters currently at joint seventh-running spot.
After the Fuel Masters the Elite still have GlobalPort and defending champion San Miguel Beer left in their elimination round assignments.
Still, Elite coach Leo Isaac is not one to count his team out. “Again, we have high hopes of playing good basketball versus Phoenix tomorrow,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can see a winning line in the closing minutes of our game.”
That is what Phoenix coach Ariel Vanguardia is wary of, among other things.
“Blackwater is a new look team with their new import and new players,” said Vanguardia. “They will play with a lot of energy We got to outwork them, be ready for adjustments and play aggressive on both ends.”
Expected to help boost Blackwater’s bid is new import Keala King, once a top US high school recruit who had stints with Arizona State and later Long Beach State and University of Pikeville in Kentucky, but never made it to the NBA.
The southpaw King, listed at 6-5, has played in Spain and is coming off a stint in the Thailand Basketball League with HiTech Bangkok. He flew in late last week to replace the injured Eric Dawson.
Reil Cervantes, who sat out Blackwater’s 87-107 loss to Alaska last Aug. 28 to rest an injured ankle, is set to suit up along with Ronald Pascual, who was acquired in a one-on-one trade with GlobalPort last week.
Also new to Blackwater is John Pinto, who has been released by Mahindra.
Phoenix has its own new player in former Batang Pier Marvin Hayes, who replaces seldom-used Paul Sorongon
in the lineup.
Making the Fuel Masters the heavy favorites is still Eugene Phelps, who has been averaging 38.25 points and 20.25 rebounds and is coming off a 45-point, 17-board performance in a 106-93 win over Star last Friday.
The likes of Cyrus Baguio, Korean Gwan-Hee Lee, Willy Wilson and Simon Enciso are expected to provide chief support.
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