Air21 fails to force sudden death, bows out

Kiiiiiiissss. Sige na. Isa lang.

Despite point guard Mike Cortez eye-popping, DLSU vintage, 21 points, 18 assists and 9 rebounds statline, the Air21 Express failed to force a sudden-death rubber match versus PBA Philippine Cup top seed Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters.

For a while there, it looked as though the Texters were coasting and sleep walking all throughout the game. They did just enough to keep the game close, the Express did everything to take four to six point leads, but there was just no denying the three-peat seeking Texters. Cortez was taking his rivals to school, from PG flag bearer Jimmy Alapag, Jayson Castro, Ryan Reyes and even the hapless Pamboy Raymundo.



Good thing Larry Fonacier, ever the unheralded savior, kept the Texters close. Whatever the Express did, mostly by a revived Mark Isip who was just owning the paint and a streaky Nino Canaleta, the Texters countered with their superb guard play.

You have to give credit not only to Cortez, but also Express head coach Franz Pumaren. The man formerly known in collegiate circles as "Bigote" was drawing up plays left and right that kept putting up points on the scoreboard for his team. Defensively, he was able to cover for guys like Canaleta and Bonbon Custodio who aren't exactly lockdown defenders per se.

And... speaking of Custodio, this guy just doesn't get it.

His role is to be the spark plug, to be the go-to-guy when the going gets tough. John Wilson wasn't delivering, Ren-Ren Ritualo was running out of gas, so Coach Franz decided to go with Custodio in the end game.

First time out, he scores two to cut the lead to one. They foul, it's a three point lead. What does Custodio do on the next play? Drive straight to the rim 1 vs 4 and wait/ expect a bail out call that never happened.

Game over.

Idol Chuck Araneta says that Custodio was probably thinking that he "could get another quick basket then go for (a) foul again and shoot a trey later." Yeah, could be, but we're not exactly the biggest Custodio fan ever since he blew the UAAP Final Four game for UE versus (fortunately for us and our Thomasian brotherhood) UST.

Hopefully the Express can build on their strongest unit which is Cortez-John Wilson-Nino Canaleta-Noy Baclao-Mark Isip. We're still rooting for Wilson despite his late conference struggles, because he makes up defensively for Canaleta's defensive lapses. Baclao's starting to look like the Atenean Baclao (had a nice Duncan-esque move in the 4th). Either they get a high scoring import or a big man to protect the paint for the Commissioner's Cup.

Big improvement from last season, honestly, we miss Sheila Lina on the sidelines. *heart, heart*