Down-the-wire quarterfinal chase up

San Miguel Beer all but nailed the fifth quarterfinal slot in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup but the standings of the eight teams that will gun for semifinal berths in four separate matches won’t be known until the last playing day of the eliminations on July 7.

The defending champion Beermen raised their record to 5-4 after turning back the NLEX Road Warriors, 125-114, in a road game in Calasiao, Pangasinan, on Saturday with a sixth win conceded them in their next game against tailender and first elimination casualty Blackwater (1-9) on July 4 when the league resumes after a nine-day break.

Assured of advancing are topnotcher Rain or Shine (9-1) and Alaska (7-2), TNT Katropa (7-3) and Meralco (7-4), which are still fighting for the other twice-to-beat bonus against the bottom qualifiers in the quarterfinals.

The two squads that will end up No. 3 and No. 4, the Beermen and the survivor of a mad scramble among GlobalPort, Barangay Ginebra and Magnolia will later play in separate best-of-three encounters in the next round with the third qualifier facing No. 6 and the fourth and fifth quarterfinalist clashing in the other pairing.

The Batang Pier are running sixth so far behind the Beermen at 5-5 after a rousing 133-115 win over Columbian Dyip as GlobalPort star Stanley Pringle unloaded 50 points Friday.

It was the highest score by a local since Asi Taulava, now with NLEX, fired 51 while playing for TNT in the 2004 Fiesta Conference.

Not counting Sunday’s game against the Aces, the Gin Kings are tied with the Hotshots for seventh at 4-5. They need to win their last two games to finish sixth. Losing both would give Phoenix (4-6) a chance to figure in a tie for the last and eighth qualifying berth if the Fuel Masters hurdle the Alaska Aces on July 6.

All ties will be decided by the quotient system but a deadlock will force a one-game playoff.

Crucial for both GlobalPort and Ginebra will be their clash on July 6 although the Gin Kings were fighting an equally important fight against the Aces at press time.

The Hotshots, on the other hand, have a difficult final game against the Beermen on July 7 after meeting the Road Warriors on July 4.

The league takes a break this week as its stars play for Gilas Pilipinas in the third window of the third Fiba World Cup qualifiers. Gilas takes on Chinese Taipei in Taiwan on June 29 then play host to Australia on July 2 in Bocaue, Bulacan.