To win half of its games is Express coach Guiao's goal

At this stretch of the PBA Philippine Cup, coach Yeng Guiao only has a modest goal as far as Air21’s campaign is concerned. With the Express holding on to a 4-6 record to join the Powerade Tigers and Barako Bull Energy Boosters at the bottom half of the standings, Guiao acknowledged that he’s just trying to be as practical as possible. “We’re not looking forward to the semi-finals or to the wild card, what we want is just to win 50 percent of our games," said the temperamental coach. Achieving that goal starts Friday for the young Express squad when it battles league leader San Miguel Beer in an Araneta Coliseum outing that will matter for both ball clubs. Game time is set at 7:30 p.m. Winners of six of their last seven assignments, the Beermen sit alone on top with a 9-2 card, and from the looks of it, need only to win two of their last three games to clinch the twice-to-beat bonus in the quarterfinals. Meralco (December 3) and Alaska (December 5) are San Miguel’s last two opponents. “Napakaganda ng posisyon namin," said coach Ato Agustin. “Sayang naman kung ngayon pa kami magpapabaya. We just have to continue what we are doing best and play as hard as we can." Just behind the Beermen in the standings are Barangay Ginebra (7-3) and Talk ‘N Text (6-3), respectively, with the two still set to meet on December 10, giving San Miguel nearly sure passage as the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals should it finish the eliminations with an 11-3 card. San Miguel won its last outing against Ginebra Sunday, 79-78, behind Jay Washington’s tip-in in the closing seconds of the hard-fought game. The Beermen also defeated Air21 in their first-round meeting, 100-86. Air21 is coming fresh from an overtime win over Powerade, 98-94, a week ago. “We’re just trying to stay out of the cellar and play decent games," said Guiao. “When reality sets in you just have to accept that we’re going to struggle at this point. We just have to build our character while we’re struggling." Like Air21, Barako Bull (2-8) is one team struggling in the All-Filipino tournament, having lost its last five games, including an 87-76 defeat at the hands of Alaska last week. Again, the Energy Boosters will have their hands full when they battle the Tropang Texters in the 5 p.m. curtain raiser. But to their credit, the Energy Boosters gave the Tropang Texters a tough time in their first encounter, losing to the powerhouse team by just a single point, 84-83. It was also Talk ‘N Text’s last victory as they were foiled by the Beermen in their next outing, 93-88, and lost for the second time in three games for a 6-3 record. – KY/JVP, GMANews.TV