Do or die for Lee Pipes, Toyota as race heats up

The elimination race in the 2004 PBL Unity Cup just gets better and hotter each game.

So close and exciting is the chase for the two twice-to-beat privileges in the quarterfinal round that newcomers — Lee Pipes-Ateneo and Toyota Otis-Letran — collide with their established rivals in similar do-or-die matches today at the Letran Gym.

The Eagles, coming off a morale-boosting 72-70 win over Welcoat Paints a week ago, battle Montana Pawnshop at 2 p.m. while the Knights take on streaking Blustar Detergent in the featured match at 4 p.m. Both matches will be shown live on Studio 23.

With their lives on the line, expect both the Eagles and Knights to pull out all stops to avoid outright elimination in the quarterfinal race.

Both Montana and Blustar are tied with defending champion Hapee Toothpaste and Sunkist-UST with identical 4-5 marks while Toyota Otis-Letran and Lee Pipes-Ateneo carry similar 3-6 records.

In case both the collegiate teams prevail over their seasoned rivals, they will force a five-way tie with their victims and along with the loser in the Hapee and Sunkist-UST showdown on Tuesday.

So far, only Viva Mineral Water (8-1) and Welcoat (6-3) are assured of semis berths. The third and fourth placers after the elims gain twice-to-beat privileges in the quarterfinal round.

The Knights, out to arrest a four-game losing run, are hoping to exploit their home court advantage to repeat over the Detergent Kings whom they beat, 77-68, last April 13.

But it would not be easy, for sure.

The Detergent Kings have been playing with lots of fire and passion as exemplified by Eric dela Cuesta, Ronald Pascual, Macky Aquino and Dondon Villamin in their last three games.

For the Knights to beat the Detergent Kings again, coach Louie Alas must also draw huge points from his second unit and not just depend on Ronjay Enrile who has been carrying much of the scoring load for the team. In some cases, the 5-foot-8 Enrile has been forcing his shots.

One factor going for the Jewels, who won their last two games, is that they beat the Eagles, 68-65, also last April 13.

The Eagles, however, are likely to do better this time around with LA Tenorio, BJ Manalo, JC Intal and Paolo Bugia expected to give top gun Larry Fonacier the much-needed support. Fonacier is averaging close to 17 points a game.