Harbour eyes sweep

LAST year, Harbour Centre needed five grueling games to score its breakthrough championship.

Now, the Port Masters have a chance to feel and taste the sweetness and sensation of winning a title series via a sweep.

Buoyed by its remarkable 63-61 comeback win in Game 2 last Thursday, Harbour Centre goes for all the marbles when it battles Hapee Toothpaste today in Game 3 of the PBL Silver Cup Finals at The Arena in San Juan.

The Port Masters, who doggedly clawed their way back from a 20-point hole in Game 2, won the Unity Cup last year by wiping out a 1-2 deficit Toyota Otis. With a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-five title series, the Port Masters, owned by businessman Mikee Romero, are just a win away from cementing their status as the league’s most dominant squad.

Harbour Centre coach Jorge Gallent is again expected to pull all the stops to annex their second straight championship via the short route.

"I can’t guarantee a sweep but we’ll play our very best and do everything in Game 3," said Gallent. "It’s going to be sweet if we end the series in three games so we’ll try."

While Gallent was reticent in his pronouncement, team manager Erick Arejola was bold and daring.

"The opportunity is there so we’ll go for it," Arejola declared. "After our miracle win in Game 2, the boys are now more determined and focused to finish the series. I expect them to play as hard as they did the last time."

Game 3 is set at 3:15 p.m. with the Port Masters enjoying a big psychological advantage, having won their last four outings, including the last two games of their highly-emotional semis series against Toyota Otis.

Preceding the match is the Achievement Awards, with Hapee’s Jayson Castro and Toyota Otis’ Marvin Cruz leading the heated and exciting MVP race. Other individual awards will also handed out by Commissioner Chino Trinidad along with Chairman Gil Angeles of Toyota Otis.

The last team to score a title sweep in the league was Welcoat Paints when the Paint Masters, handled then by Junel Baculi, outclassed Dazz five years ago.

But all is no yet lost for the Cecilio Pedro-owned franchise team.

coach Jun Noel, while ruing the team’s collapse last time, is not about to raise the white flag, saying: "It’s not yet over, they have to win three games to win the series."

The task at hand is quite formidable but the Teethmasters can look up to Magnolia Ice Cream as a great source of inspiration. The Spinners rallied from the same deficit to beat Rain or Shine (formerly Welcoat) in the Heroes Cup Finals last year.

To extend the series, the Teethmasters must stop Chico Lanete and Al Vergara. Lanete hit back-to-back baskets, the last one a booming trey, to rescue the Port Masters for nth time.

The 5-foot-8 Vergara also woke up from a brief stupor to score 9 points, including a triple early in the fourth that turned to be the spark the Port Masters needed to turn the game around.

Castro scored 16 points but was shut out in the fourth where Hapee scored just one basket–a triple from Ronald Bucao–in 12 tries. Castro finished with a horrible 6-of-18 shooting from the field, obviously distracted by the pesky defense of Ryan Arana, Jonathan Fernandez and Lanete.