Beermen, Aces try to enhance bids; Pido out

Games today (Smart Araneta Coliseum)

4:15 p.m. – NLEX vs Alaska

7 p.m. – San Miguel vs Meralco

MANILA, Philippines - Joint leaders Alaska Milk and San Miguel Beer try to widen their gap from the chasing pack as they take on NLEX and Meralco, respectively, tonight in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Aces and the Road Warriors slug it out in the more important game at 4:15 p.m. with the former pushing their Top Two aspiration and the latter out to complete the playoffs cast.

A win by NLEX over Alaska hands the Road Warriors the last slot in the quarterfinals, easing out playing coach Manny Pacquiao and his Kia team in the playoffs picture.

San Miguel Beer and Meralco collide at 7 p.m. with the Beermen also out to firm up their Top Two bid and the Bolts looking to improve their record in the middle of the standings.

Alaska and San Miguel share the lead with identical 7-1 win-loss records, a game ahead of third-running Rain or Shine (6-2) and two games in front of joint third placers Barangay Ginebra (5-3), Talk n Text (5-3) and Purefoods Star (5-3).

The Aces and the Beermen are determined to make the Top Two and get an automatic passage into the Final Four.

Meanwhile, Globalport fired head coach Pido Jarencio and tapped Eric Gonzales to take over in an interim basis as the Batang Pier struggle at eighth place entering the homestretch of the PBA Philippine Cup elimination round.

But despite his ouster as head coach, Jarencio still hopes the best for the team, praying that the Batang Pier win their last two games versus Barangay Ginebra and Meralco and salvage a spot in the Top Six.

In fact, the one-time UAAP champion coach still showed up in practice at the Moro Lorenzo gym inside the Ateneo campus yesterday, encouraging the players to exert best effort to achieve the team’s goal.

“I told them to play as hard as they can and make boss (team owner Mikee Romero) proud,” said Jarencio.                            – Nelson Beltran