Look who’s going to PBL semifinals

Just a month ago, making it past the elimination round of the 2006 PBL Unity Cup appeared far from Harbour Centre’s reach.

Look where the Port Masters are now.

Banking on a strong first half, Harbour Centre survived the best Granny Goose could offer and hacked out a convincing 73-60 win yesterday to book the last semifinal slot in the season-ending tournament.

The Final Four immediately begins tomorrow also at the Olivarez College Sports Center, giving the Port Masters less than 48 hours to prepare against No. 2 team Montaña Pawnshop in their own best-of-five series.

But coach Jorge Gallent doesn’t see any problem with his team playing its third game in the last five days.

"We’ve won two straight big games, so the morale of the team is high right now. I guess we just have to sustain it, never mind if we play again tomorrow," he said.

Hardly given a second look after struggling for most of the conference, Harbour wasn’t even favored to make it this far after making the quarterfinals needing to beat Granny Goose, the No. 3 team at the end of the eliminations and the same squad that ousted them in the playoffs last conference, twice in a row.

But suddenly things began to change when they beat the Snack Masters last Tuesday, 59-51, to set the stage for their do-or-die encounter.

"We had a bad start (this conference)," admitted Galent. "But even when we were losing, we still believed."

And believe they did.

The Port Masters’ three-pronged guard of L.A. Tenorio, Joseph Yeo and Chico Lanete combined for 45 points —half of the team’s output — and repeatedly buried the Snack Masters with their deadly penetrations and timely outside shots.

Lanete, the former Granny Goose stalwart, torched his former team for 16 points in 16 minutes of play.

Yeo had 15 while Tenorio added 13, six assists and three steals.

Yeo and Tenorio were at their best in the first half when they anchored Harbour’s running game. A jumper by Yeo to start the second period engineered a big 20-8 run by the Port Masters, which Tenorio capped by a booming three-pointer.