Phoenix rises

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Phoenix Petroleum gave itself a chance to slay the ghost of a very recent past.

Rookie Matthew Wright hit some big shots down the stretch that complemented the Fuel Masters’ defense as Phoenix survived undermanned Barangay Ginebra, 79-73, on Sunday night at Philsports Arena in Pasig, to earn a shot at the No. 2 seeding in the PBA Philippine Cup playoffs.

After rising to 6-4, the Fuel Masters booked an automatic quarterfinal seat—just the second in the field—to gain a chance for the second twice-to-beat privilege.

That shot will come next week when the Fuel Masters battle Alaska and coach Ariel Vanguardia feels it is something they need to hurdle in order to put two recent failures behind.

“I don’t want to pressure my players, but this will be our third time to have a shot at No. 2,” said Vanguardia, after getting 18 points from Wright.

“We have nothing to celebrate and if we lose (to the Aces) we might even end up No. 7 or 8.”

Earlier, coach Alex Compton said they have to sweep their last two games, even after a 107-91 dispatching of Mahindra.

“We have to win or we could not make the playoffs altogether,” Compton said after gaining a  tie for third place in rising to 5-4. “There are a lot of (playoff) scenarios and I don’t really know what will happen.”

The Aces needed a big fourth quarter to snuff the fight out of the Floodbuster, with the veteran Dondon Hontiveros shooting all of his seven points and Calvin Abueva and Vic Manuel combining for 14 that essentially was the story of the game.

“Dondon set the clock back there a little bit,” Compton said of his 38-year-old veteran, who was on the floor for only 7:45 but was the biggest hero for the Aces. “Together with Tony (Dela Cruz) and Sonny (Thoss), Dondon changed the game for us in the second half.”

As things stand, only San Miguel is assured of a twice-to-beat privilege in the first round of the playoffs and is actually the only team, as of this writing, which has formally earned a place past the elimination round.

Another thing that is for certain is that Mahindra, after dropping to 2-7, is now out of the playoff picture like NLEX, which has the same record.

Meralco, which has a 3-7 card and with a game left in its schedule, is still mathematically in the hunt provided the several teams ahead of the Bolts lose a bunch of games and don’t win more than four.

“The rest of us, from ninth place to second, are just so bunched together that anything can happen,” Compton said as Rain or Shine, TNT KaTropa and Phoenix Petroleum and Barangay Ginebra, which were clashing as of this writing, also have 5-4 records.

“It depends on how everything plays out to the very end,” Compton said when pressed to give a conservative assessment on where he foresees his Aces to be at in the playoffs, where Nos. 7 and 8 will be put in a precarious position of needing to beat a top two foe two straight times to advance to the Final Four.

Those finishing from 3 to 6 will be bracketed in two best-of-three series, but even a spot in that seems blurry at the moment for Compton.

Alaska will still be facing Phoenix and Rain or Shine, both still in the running for No. 2, and if the Aces manage to beat both, they would have the inside track on the second quarterfinal incentive after having beaten most of the teams they could end up tied with for No. 2.

Alex Mallari paced the Floodbuster with 23.