Games today
Araneta Coliseum
4:15 p.m.- Star vs. *GlobalPort
7:00 p.m.- Brgy. Ginebra vs. *Alaska
*twice-to-beat
THE GLOBALPORT Batang Pier and Alaska Aces take on dangerous opponents as they gun for semifinal berths at the start of the quarterfinal round of the 40th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Batang Pier take on the defending champions Star Hotshots in the first game set at 4:15 p.m. while the Aces battle the Barangay Ginebra Kins in the 7 p.m. Encounter.
Alaska and GlobalPort need just one win to advance to arrange a semifinal showdown after they earned twice-to-beat edges in the elimination round.
The Aces wound up as the number one seed, while the Batang Pier are ranked number four.
Star is the fifth seed while Ginebra finished eighth, barely making it to the quarterfinals.
Ginebra booked the last quarterfinal seat after pulling off a hard-earned 110-107 win over the NLEX Road Warriors last Wednesday night.
Japeth Aguilar nailed the marginal basket, a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left that sealed the Kings’ league-record 25th straight playoff appearance.
Meralco, Ginebra, Kia and Talk ‘N Text actually finished the elimination round with similar 5-6 (win-loss) records.
Owing to their superior quotients, the Bolts emerged as the seventh seed, while the Kings took the last and eighth playoff spot.
Talk ‘N Text could have taken the last spot if the Bolts beat Kia last Wednesday.
“(After Kia won over Meralco), I told the guys huwag natin sayangin ang tsansa. (let’s not waste the chance) And if we wanna do it, we’ve got to want it,” said Ginebra coach Frankie Lim.
Lim admits the Kings are in for a dogfight against the Aces.
“We’re facing Alaska, the No. 1 team, and we have to prepare something good. They press a lot and try to limit your sets to certain number of seconds. We have to be ready for that,” said Lim.
The other quarterfinal pairings will have the San Miguel Beermen versus the Bolts and the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters against the Barako Bull Energy.
San Miguel and Rain or Shine are armed with twice-to-beat edges.
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