Tigers out to regain solo lead vs Realtors

The Philippine Basketball Association holds a rare Tuesday twinbill today at the Astrodome before the league top stars fly to Bacolod, Negros Occidental for the 2008 All-Star Extravaganza this weekend.

Coca-Cola seeks to regain the solo lead in the Smart PBA Fiesta Cup before the All-Star break as the Tigers go up against the Sta. Lucia Realtors in the 7:20 p.m. mainer at the Pasay City venue.

Talk n Text and Air21, among the teams in the middle of the chart, clash in the other game at 4:50 p.m.

The Tigers narrowly escaped with an 82-81 win over Ginebra Friday as Mark Caguioa’s potential game-winning breakaway lay-up came a second late. They found company at the top when Red Bull outlasted Alaska Milk, 100-97, in overtime in a road game in Laoag City Saturday.

Also on Friday, the Sta. Lucia Realtors suffered their first defeat since ruling the recent Philippine Cup, beaten by a red-hot Macmac Cardona and his Talk n Text teammates, 115-113.

The Coke-Sta. Lucia tiff is tipped to be a fierce encounter with both teams looking to boost their respective bids in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the PBA summoned Alaska import Randy Holcomb today to shed light on his flagrant foul on Red Bull cager Rich Alvarez during the two teams’ out-of-town encounter in Laoag City over the weekend.

The infraction was classified as flagrant foul-1, which merited an automatic fine but a number of team officials have wanted it upgraded since it was a hard, dangerous foul.

Holcomb tackled Alvarez who sustained a possible nasal bone fracture when the import attempted to stop his breakaway layup.