Beermen shoot for finals slot

KUALA LUMPUR—For San Miguel Beer coach Bobby Parks, Game 1 showed how his Beermen’s top seeding hardly intimidated the Westports Malaysia Dragons.

So Parks knows its will take more than just poise and composure for his Beermen to claim the first title berth over the Dragons in the Asean Basketball League semifinals today.

“The close-out game is much tougher, especially because their (Dragons) backs are against the wall,” said Parks.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is set at 4 p.m. at the  Maba Stadium here.

But while the Beermen go for a 2-0 sweep, the AirAsia Philippine Patriots hope to forge a deciding Game 3 in their own semifinal duel against the Indonesia Warriors at 3 p.m. tomorrow (4 p.m. Manila time) at Mahaka Square in Jakarta.

“I’m happy with our guys, but we really have to work on our defense,” said Parks.

The Beermen needed an extra period to dispose of the Dragons, 111-104, last weekend where imports Nick Fazekas and Duke Crews and Chris Banchero starred in the clutch.