PETRON Blaze already looked impressive in its last two games, but coach Gee Abanilla still issued a statement which could well spell alarm for the rest of the PBA Governors’ Cup field.
“We are still a work in progress,” said Abanilla on the eve of his Boosters’ match with Air21 Wednesday
at the Mall of Asia Arena.
A third straight win in four games by Petron gives it at least a share of the lead and Abanilla said he just wants his charges to keep it simple.
“We just want to build on the momentum we had in our last game,” stated Abanilla, referring to their cruising 99-84 win over erstwhile unbeaten Rain or Shine last Friday.
That victory takes on additional meaning by the fact it was much more impressive than a 101-95 triumph over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, enabling the Boosters to shrug off an 83-89 loss to Meralco in their conference debut.
Yet Abanilla maintains the best still has to come for the team he only started just late July.
“We still need to work on our chemistry on both ends of the floor,” explained Abanilla.
“Hopefully we could come out aggressive and compete in a high level against Air21.”
The Express are themselves coming off a bad 94-103 loss to Barako Bull and want nothing more than to spring a surprise that would get them back on track.
For that to happen there must be more than ample local support for prolific import Zach Graham.
True to the form he first displayed last year, Graham has been torching the hoops with an average of 34.3 points per game. So far, however, only Nino Canaleta has been consistently contributing with 14.3 ppg.
To avoid the Air21 axe, Petron’s defense must be more airtight than the one they displayed against Rain or Shine, according to Abanilla.
“We had decent defense. We were lucky hindi pumapasok mga tira nila,” said Abanilla after his team held the defending champions to a 29-for-84 field shooting.
Elijah Millsap has been steady for Petron with 27.0 points and 11.3 rebounds per game, but helping stoke the team’s success are the likes of Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos and Marcio Lassiter, who each average at least 11.6 points per game. (NC)
Source: http://pba.inquirer.net/29391/boosters-gun-for-third-straight-w
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