BY NOLI CORTEZ

ANTIPOLO - For majority of the game, Magnolia played excellent defense. But Air21 was ready.

With Gary David and Arwind Santos hitting the big baskets and the Express making the pivotal plays in the stretch, Air21 came out with an 82-78 win Friday to surge ahead in their Smart PBA Fiesta Conference semifinals series at the Ynares Center.

The win was as harrowingly fashioned as Air21's 103-102 triumph two days before, but was enough to give them a 2-1 edge in the best-of-seven duel.

"Now mas naiintindihan ko na what championship experience is all about," said Express coach Bo Perasol, whose team has been in a best-of-seven series only once before. "We don't have that much, but these kinds of playoff games give us that."

The poise shown by his charges also gave Perasol much pleasure.

"We had our game-plan, pero pagdating sa laro importante na 'yung kagustuhan at focus to win," he stated.

None personified that resolve more than David and Santos, whose endgame plays made up for import Steven Thomas' measly nine-point production brought about by Magnolia's often hard multiple-teaming. He shot 4-of-12 from the floor, but did have 14 rebounds and five blocked shots.

Even David found the going rough in the early goings, being limited to just seven points the entire first half and going scoreless in the third period. He scattered 18 of his game-high 26 points last Wednesday in the first half alone.

But when the crunch came in the form of a 67-74 deficit, the one-time PBL MVP was able to shred the Magnolia defenses by scoring 10 of his team-high 17 points in the decisive fourth period, all by his lonesome giving Air21 the lead 77-76.

So did Santos, who missed his first five tries from beyond the arc. His triple made it a four-point game and, after Amal McCaskill capped a 16-point, 10 rebound night with a pair of charities, sank two free throws to make it an 82-78 count, still 9.7 ticks left.

Whatever hopes the Beverage Masters may have had of salvaging the game vanished when Dondon Hontiveros missed his three-point try and, after recovering the ball, got stripped by David just before the final buzzer sounded.

The Bert Lina franchise can move closer to a first-ever finals appearance if it wins again in Game 4 Sunday.

"I'm sure they'll come out strong but we'll be ready for that," said Perasol.