Twin towers use last shot to take FiberXers to semis

Justin Arana (with ball) and Justine Baltazar will exhaust Converge’s last chance to make PH Cup Final Four on Sunday. —PBA IMAGES

Before Justine Baltazar entered the Converge front, Justin Arana was the big man who held down the fort for the FiberXers.

And when that towering combine was completed after the FiberXers snagged the 6-foot-9 Baltazar as the top overall pick in the 2024 Draft, he and Arana immediately shared a goal, which is looking oh-so close to being accomplished.

“(We) have always talked about needing to get this,” Arana, beefy and agile at 6-foot-8, told the Inquirer, referring to the twin towers’ desire to fuel Converge to its first-ever semifinals appearance, which hit a snag on Christmas Day when the FiberXers got blown off at the Smart Araneta Coliseum floor by Barangay Ginebra, 105-85, in the Philippine Cup quarterfinals.

That was a loss Converge can afford and for the FiberXers to make it to their breakthrough Final Four, they would have to play with the pressure the Gin Kings were supposed to have two nights ago.

“It’ll be our first time, if ever, to reach the semifinals if we win (Game 2),” Arana went on. “It’s so important for us. To be the best, though, we have to beat the best.”

The FiberXers earned a twice-to-beat bonus by qualifying as the fourth seed in the playoffs against the No. 5 Kings and that privilege had been exhausted behind Scottie Thompson’s triple-double and 35 points from RJ Abarrientos.

Now, the FiberXers have their backs against the wall in a quarterfinal series and they’ll have to regroup against a hungry Gin Kings squad.

Game 1 struggle

After struggling to just six points and the same number of rebounds, Arana said that a three-day turnaround for the KO match is quite quick.

Baltazar, meanwhile, was the other half of the twin towers that held his ground after finishing with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

But he and Baltazar have a vision for Converge and no limited amount of time can dampen their fire to reach that goal.

“Two days (preparing for the Sunday game) aren’t really enough, but we need to adjust right away,” Arana said. “We don’t have a choice, we’ll adjust right away.”

“We’ll do it the next day immediately, we’ll watch our mistakes from this game.”