Alaska, Shopinas eye first victory
Games today:
Araneta Coliseum
5:30 p.m.- Barako Bull vs. Alaska
7:45 p.m.- Shopinas.com vs. B-Meg
The pressure to get that breakthrough win is definitely mounting for the sputtering Alaska Aces.
More bad news for the Aces is that they will be playing the rampaging Barako Bull Energy today in the first game of the 37th PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
Amid their struggles, trade rumors are also hounding the Aces, who have yet to win a single game in five starts.
Joel Banal is still winless since taking the Alaska coaching chores to replace the resigned Tim Cone.
With the alarming slide, reports had it that Alaska is set to shake its lineup where it will supposedly trade mobile center Sonny Thoss for Ginebra’s Enrico Villanueva and JC Intal.
The trade is supposedly to improve Alaska’s cohesiveness. Should the trade push through, Villanueva and Intal will join several former Ateneo de Manila University players who are now with Alaska.
Banal himself had a stint with the Eagles and even led the squad to a championship finished in the UAAP. Alaska has several former Blue Eagles in its fold such as LA Tenorio, Paolo Bugia, Eric Salamat and Wesley Gonzales.
Cohesiveness is definitely not a problem for the Barako Bull side as it has won its last four games, occupying second place along with the Talk ’N Text Tropang Texters with identical 4-1 (win-loss) records.
A win today will allow the Energy to tie the idle Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at the top. Rain or Shine leads the standings with five wins and one loss.
Another winless team sees action in the main game with the Shopinas.com Clickers taking on the inconsistent B-Meg Llamados in the main game.
Shopinas.com and Alaska are at last place with identical 0-5 slates.
Cone’s transfer to B-Meg has also been a rough one as the Llamados are also struggling to find consistency.
Despite their solid line-up, the Llamados could only win two of their first six games to rank eighth in the standings.
