Liga wildcard winners saddle up for quarters | Philippine Sports News and Updates

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Liga wildcard winners saddle up for quarters

Source : Staff

Saturday, 16 August 2008 13:39

Wildcard winners Misamis Oriental Meteors, the Lipa Batangas Barakos, and the Laguna Trace Stallions won’t be having the benefit of the home crowd as they did before come the quarterfinal phase of the Smart-Liga Pilipinas playoff starting next week.

All three teams begin their respective best-of-five campaigns on the road, less than a week after gaining mileage out of their homecourt edge to advance into the Final 8 of the tournament.

The Meteors take the first crack against the Pagadian Explorers at the Pagadian City gym on Aug. 18 while the Stallions and Barakos follow suit on Aug. 21 when they battle the Cebu Ninos at the New Cebu Coliseum and Pampanga Buddies at the Assumption University in San Fernando, respectively.

The Iloilo Mang Inasals is the only team to break free from the wild card stage by winning back-to-back games on the road, doing it at the expense of the Baguio Victory in Baguio City behind the brilliant scoring of guard Erwin Sta. Maria.

The Mang Inasals will next troop to the Tinga gym in Taguig on August 18 to battle the third seeded Batang City Global.

The quarterfinal carries a 2-2-1 format, with the Ninos, Explorers, Batang City Global and Buddies enjoying homecourt advantage after qualifying outright for earning the most number of points at the end of the 13-leg, 7-week elimination phase of the tournament sponsored by Smart, Accel, Molten, Metathione, Nature’s spring, Burlington, and Laptop Exchange.

For ranking 5th to 8th places, the Baguio, Lipa-Batangas, Misamis Oriental, and Laguna enjoy twice-to-beat advantage in the wildcard tourney.

The Barakos and Stallions were both forged into do-or-die matches by the Quezon Red Oilers and the Tagaytay/Cavite Heroes before prevailing, while the Meteors were the only wild card team to win their series outright after edging out the Iloilo Bravehearts, 72-71, at the Xavier University gym in Cagayan de Oro.

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