Thursday, May 22, 2008 Express turn back Magnolia, 96-90
MANILA - Arwind Santos scored 11 points in the final six minutes to lift the Air 21 Express to a 96-90 win over Magnolia Beverage yesterday in the 2008 Smart-PBA Fiesta Conference at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo City.
Both teams were locked at 78-all when Santos came in to forge the decisive rally that also starred import Steve Thomas and Gary David en route to their back-to-back
win.
Coach Bo Perasol expressed elation over the Express win that raised them to a tie for second along with idle Coca-Cola with identical 6-4 slate, just a game behind co-leader Talk ‘N Text and Red Bull.
The Phone Pals and the Barakos have both have seven wins in 10 games.
Solid defense
Down by 12 points, 30-42, in the last three minutes of the second quarter, the Express worked on a solid defense that had the guns of the Beverage Masters silenced for four minutes to cut down the deficit to only five points, 39-44, at the end of the half.
But what really slowed the offense of the Beverage Masters was their 28 turnovers in the match that the Express took advantage of as they converted 12 of into points.
From there, KG Canaleta and David threw a 14-4 rally to grab the lead for good, 66-62, still 53 seconds remaining in the third period.
Solo fourth
The Beverage Masters, who dropped to solo fourth with a 5-5 card, have several opportunities to regain the lead but a timely interception by Santos off a pass by Danny Seigle to import Jameel Watkins stretched the Express lead to 7 points, 94-87, only 17 seconds remaining in the match.
The 6-foot-1 guard David topscored for the Express with 24 points, while Thomas finished with 23, Santos added 15 and 12 for KG Canaleta.
Watkins scored a game-high 29 points, Seigle contributed 21 and Dondon Hontiveros had 11 points. (FCC)
