Once upon a PBA night
Midnight has yet to come for coach Jamike Jarin and his unheralded Phoenix Fuel Masters squad, which defied expectations and became the final team to catch the semifinal bus of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup.
“The fairytale continues,” Jarin said after his team emerged as the winner of Sunday’s sudden death quarterfinal with the Meralco Bolts, 88-84, at Mall of Asia Arena, and set up a showdown with the top seed Magnolia Hotshots.
Phoenix will get to play more meaningful basketball starting on Wednesday when the two semifinal meetings are played at Smart Araneta Coliseum.The other best-of-five series pits San Miguel Beer and defending champion Barangay Ginebra as the Final Four has all three San Miguel Corporation teams which raises the probability of a sister act finale, unless Phoenix shows that it can overcome the odds once more.Phoenix lost its elimination round meeting to Magnolia in Antipolo City last November, but the way the youth-filled roster performed since then has given Jarin belief that the Fuel Masters can give the Hotshots more competitive battles ahead.“They (Magnolia) were the favorites even before the start of the conference so we have our hands full. They took care of business the last time (defeating TNT in the quarterfinals) and they’re well-rested,” said Jarin.
“Anyways, we’re not supposed to be here, right? Nobody, at the start of the conference, predicted that we will be in the top four. We’re just happy to make the semifinals and we’ll continue to play harder and hopefully things go our way and [we] win some games. So the pressure’s on them.”
Reaching the Final Four is something that Phoenix is taking pride in after its previous trip to the semifinals in the 2020 Philippine Cup bubble resulted in eventual departures of Calvin Abueva, Matthew Wright and coach Topex Robinson.
Owner’s pep talk
The feat was so significant, that even team owner Dennis Uy came by to watch the decider and later addressed the players after they achieved only the franchise’s third semifinal appearance since entering the league in the 2016 Commissioner’s Cup.“We’re up against a very good team, but it’s five-on-five,” Uy told the team inside the locker room.Import Johnathan Williams once again came through for Phoenix with 21 points and 16 rebounds, and will now measure himself up against Magnolia counterpart Tyler Bey in a battle pitting two of the top candidates for the conference’s Best Import.Jason Perkins, one of the holdovers along with RJ Jazul from Phoenix’s last Final Four appearance, also displayed his strong play since the start of the conference with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
But it will be players like sophomore Tyler Tio and rookies Kenneth Tuffin and Ricci Rivero who are perhaps going to savor the chance of playing pressure-packed games for the first time as professionals after having plenty of experiences during their college days. They too were key in taking down the more seasoned Bolts.
