Avoiding Red Bull

It’s a fact that in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), teams hate playing Red Bull because the Barakos are rough, tough and extremely deep.

In tonight’s playoff between Purefoods and Sta. Lucia Realty at the Cuneta Astrodome, the winner gets to avoid a quarterfinal duel against Red Bull by taking the No. 5 slot. That’s more of an incentive than escaping the wildcard route where Alaska, Air21 and Coca-Cola are waiting in ambush.

The loser will carryover a 10-8 card in the wildcard series and should be able to eventually advance to the quarterfinals, barring any unforeseen accident. Alaska (8-10), Air21 (7-10) and Coca-Cola (5-13) are in a tight fix and their fortunes hinge on whether they can pull down tonight’s playoff loser.

An interesting twist in the wildcard phase is the incentive clause where a team that sweeps its assignments but fails to post the best win-loss carryover record gains a playoff against the No. 1 team for the right to advance to the quarters. That’s a tall order, however, because neither Coca-Cola nor Air21 has won three in a row this conference. The exception is Alaska who has strung up a pair of three-game win streaks and is coming off three successive victories over Air21, Welcoat and Purefoods.

The winner of tonight’s playoff will move on to the quarters and play Talk ‘N’ Text in a best-of-5 series. Red Bull will meet the wildcard qualifier in the other best-of-5 quarterfinals.

If Purefoods loses to Sta. Lucia tonight but tops the wildcard series, the Chunkee Giants will relive their last two finals duels against the Barakos in the quarters. Red Bull beat Purefoods, 4-2, for the Fiesta Conference crown and Purefoods upended Red Bull, 4-2, for the Philippine Cup title last season.

Ginebra and San Miguel finished the double-round eliminations (no longer called the classifications because a team was actually eliminated after two rounds) with identical 13-5 marks but the Kings took the No. 1 ranking by virtue of a plus-1 quotient. That means Ginebra will face the quarterfinal survivor of the Talk ‘N’ Text-winner of the Purefoods-Sta. Lucia playoff in the best-of-7 semifinals.

If Red Bull wins its quarterfinal series against the wildcard topnotcher, it will play San Miguel Beer in the best-of-7 semifinals.

Any of the possible semifinal and final pairings will be a dream matchup. In the semifinals, it could be San Miguel versus Red Bull and Ginebra versus Talk ‘N’ Text–assuming the Barakos and Phone Pals survive the quarters.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s a playoff to watch today, remember?

Sta. Lucia hasn’t beaten Purefoods in two meetings this conference and coach Alfrancis Chua would like nothing better than to register a breakthrough in their third faceoff. The Giants beat the Realtors by four in their first encounter and by two in their second.

Chua will never forget that first setback because it ended the Realtors’ perfect 3-0 start. The loss was the only blemish in Sta. Lucia’s early 6-1 mark. And the second defeat to Purefoods extended Sta. Lucia’s skid to three straight losses. Now, Chua has a chance to pay back Purefoods for those nightmares.

Sta. Lucia has lost five of its last six outings, a complete reversal from its 6-1 start. Chua is begging for consistency from his boys. If the Realtors only play to their potentials, they’ll be tough to beat. The problem is they turn off as quickly as they turn on. On a good night, Sta. Lucia should be able to handle Purefoods.

The Giants are fresh from losing two in a row. They’re due for a bounce back and it could come tonight at Sta. Lucia’s expense. Purefoods’ advantage is it relies more on defense than offense to win unlike Sta. Lucia.

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Joyce Abigail Ilagan, 17, took home a load of goodies as the first prize winner of our annual Christmas treat contest. She claimed her prizes at The STAR office last Dec. 22. Her loot included P15,000 cash from Mikee Romero of Harbour Centre, a P500 Power Books gift certificate and P500 National Bookstore gift certificate from Joy Buensalido, an electric desk fan from Tessa Jazmines of Larc and Asset, a Motorola cellphone from Talk ‘N’ Text team manager Frankie Lim, a gift pack of three bottles of wine from businessman-sportsman Hermie Esguerra, a pair of leather 10-ounce boxing gloves from Tony Aldeguer, a No Fear T-shirt from Tommy Ong, a basketball stool from PBA commissioner Noli Eala and lots, lots more.

Joyce is the oldest of five children and has twin brothers, John Adam and John Acer. Her father Dominador, 50, is a family driver and mother Eva, 43, is a housewife. It’s the first time Joyce ever joined a Star contest. She is a first year college student taking up computer science at the Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez Institute of Technology.

Prizes were given to 25 winners.

Here is the complete list of donors:

San Miguel Corp. (Robert Non)–16 Purefoods Fiesta Ham gift certificates worth P300 each, two cases of San Miguel Beer in can and one box of San Mig Coffee. Red Bull (Tony Chua)–16 Red Bull T-shirts and 16 Red Bull caps. Alaksa (Joaqui Trillo)–25 Alaska T-shirts, 25 Alaska E-cow stuff toys and 50 Alaska tumblers. Talk ‘N’ Text (Frankie Lim)–four Motorola cellphones. Air21 (Lito Alvarez)–25 Air21 T-shirts and 25 Air21 memo pads. Welcoat (Raymond Yu)–20 pails of Rain or Shine Elastomeric waterproofing paint. PBA (Commissioner Noli Eala)–two Molten rubber basketballs, two half-dunk stools and five Ateneo-La Salle T-shirts. PBL (Commissioner Chino Trinidad)–10 PBL caps, 10 PBL water jugs and two Spalding rubber basketballs. PSC (Chairman William Ramirez)–50 basketballs. PATAFA (Go Teng Kok)–five T-shirts and a track suit. Adidas (Goody Custodio)–25 Adidas umbrellas, 25 Adidas 2007 planners and 25 Adidas bodybags. Nike (Tony Atayde)–five Nike T-shirts and six Nike caps. Sonia Trading (Anil Buxani)–10 Molten outdoor basketballs and 15 T-shirts. No Fear (Tommy Ong)–13 No Fear T-shirts, 20 No Fear wall calendars and 48 No Fear pocket calendars. Planet Sports (Anton Gonzalez)–seven Spalding T-shirts and three Nike bags. ProStar Sports (Jay Gervasio)–10 Nike wristbands, 10 Nike water bottles and five Nike "Sole Provider" books.

Philippine Star (Miguel Belmonte)–25 Star T-shirts, 25 Star mugs, 25 Star notebooks, 25 Star bodybags and 25 Star paper bags. Relzbach Ventures (Bob Bachmann)–20 And1 music CD vol. 2 and one And1 T-shirt. Sportium (Philip Go)–16 Accel caps. Philippine Football Federation (Johnny Romualdez)–five FIFA Goal balls, three pairs of Nike shin guards and three Bayern Munich Adidas bags. ProSolutions (Dux Carvajal)–three ESPN Star Sports bags, five ESPN Star Sports T-shirts, five mousepads and seven posters. DSS Productmakers (Dioceldo Sy)–24 bottles of Careline body lotion and 24 bottles of Careline body spray. Buensalido and Associates (Joy Buensalido)–two San Francisco Coffee gift certificates of P500 each, two Old Swiss Inn gift certificates of P500 each, a Power Books P500 gift certificate and a P500 National Bookstore gift certificate. Harbour Centre (Mikee Romero)–P15,000 cash. Herma Group (Hermie Esguerra)–five gift packs of imported wine. Ideazplus (Bob Zozobrado)–a gym bag, pen set and demitasse set from the Macau government and a backpack and T-shirt from Thai Airways. Tony Aldeguer–a pair of 10-ounce leather boxing gloves, two bottles of My Buddy Bear multivitamins, ALA boxing shorts, 20 T-shirts and Penrex herbal supplement for men. Sarreal Boxing Gym, Banawe (Jun Sarreal)–a bottle of imported wine, two Magnolia queso de bola. Henkel (Armando Hicarte)–three Henkel gift packs and five Henkel umbrellas. Larc and Asset (Tessa Jazmines)–electric desk fan. GAB (Eric Buhain)–Prince badminton racket. Emerald Headway (Cristina Aspiras)–50 sports magazines. Sta. Lucia Realty (Buddy Encarnado)–P5,000 worth of gift certificates for the Sta. Lucia East mall.

To our 25 winners, congratulations. And to our generous sponsors, thank you very much for your continued support.