Mobiline stalls Shell: Forces rubber with 76-72 victory

Mobiline will be the first team to oppose arguments that a team with a twice-to-beat advantage in the Philippine Basketball Association quarterfinals is hard to beat.

The Phone Pals should know that, because they themselves are still haunted by the ghost of their 1999 All-Filipino Cup debacle where they were twice stunned by the Barangay Ginebra Kings and bungled the decisive edge they earned in topping the eliminations.

They remembered that rule last night, and, using that setback as motivating tool, the Phone Pals got half of the job done versus the Shell Turbo Chargers by pulling off a 76-72 victory at the start of the 2001 All-Filipino Cup playoffs at the Makati Coliseum last night.

"Talagang hindi pa nakakalimutan ng team ang talo sa Ginebra at iyun ang motivation namin sa playoffs na ito," said coach Louie Alas as his Phone Pals foiled the Turbochargers’ first crack at clinching a slot in the semifinals.

With the victory, the Phone Pals, the last team to qualify in the quarters, evened things up with the elimination-round topnotcher Turbochargers, forcing a deciding game in their matchup Friday.

"Tabla-tabla na kami. Isa’t-isa na lang. Siguro naman kakabahan na rin sila sa amin," said Alas.

Jerry Codinera, who had a big boner in their 66-77 defeat to San Miguel Beer in their final game in the elims last week, redeemed himself by dishing out an all-round game to lead the Phone Pals to the crucial win. He scored a game-high 18 points that went with six rebounds against one turnover in 43 minutes of action.

Alas actually tapped all his personnel and drew positive response from each of them as they surprisingly dominated the favored Shell side.

The sparingly-used Josel Angeles even started at big guard spot to take on Rob Wainwright. The veteran player played good defense on the Fil-Am hotshot and though he didn’t score a single basket, he pulled down big rebounds in a 20-minute stint on the floor.

Then there were Don Camaso (with 14 points), Vic Pablo (13) and Gilbert Demape (12) who all finished in double figures, and Patrick Fran and Jherome Ejercito who combined for 14 points while, more importantly, providing stability at the backcourt.

Shell coach Perry Ronquillo thought they lost the game because his players didn’t follow their game plan and relied on their individual talents.

"My hat’s off to Mobiline because they played a good game but I also felt my players allowed themselves to be beaten by their old sickness . . . their old cancer of relying on individual talents," rued Ronquillo. "Do we have individual talents? No. We won games because of hard work."