Untried import suits up for Hotdogs

Purefoods lost hard-working import Leon White to a back injury and will pin its hopes on untested new recruit Kelvin Price as it takes its first crack at the Samsung PBA Governors Cup Final Four against Red Bull at the Araneta Coliseum today.

Coca-Cola likewise makes its first attempt at clinching a spot in the semifinals, hoping to take the short cut to the next round versus beleaguered reigning champion Sta. Lucia Realty.

Purefoods officials were forced to make an SOS call to the United States with White unable to recover from a back injury he sustained in their last game in the eliminations versus Red Bull itself last Saturday.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test on White at St. Luke’s Hospital Thursday revealed that the player is not in shape to play in the next few days.

But Purefoods was still lucky it found an import replacement in the United States ready to fly in short notice.

Price, a product of University of North Carolina at Charlotte who played for the Huntsville Flight in the recent National Developmental Basketball League, arrived Thursday night and joined the Hotdogs in practice yesterday.

Listed as a 6-foot-7 player, Price, 26, averaged 12.3 points and 6.4 rebounds in his senior year at North Carolina-Charlotte and normed 8.5 points and 7.1 rebounds in 56 games for Huntsville under coach Bob Thorton – a former New York Knick who worked as consultant to Altamirano at Mobiline for sometime. Thorton recommended Price to Purefoods.

Price and Derrick Brown will be up against Tong Lang and new partner Sean Lampley in the 5:45 p.m. contest. The 22-year-old Lampley, who replaced Joe Bunn, played for the University of California at Berkeley in college ball and is fresh from a stint with the Saskatchewan Hawks in the CBA.