Flying-V's Altamirano wary of complacency in D-League playoff

Games Tuesday

(Ynares Sports Arena, Pasig)

3 p.m. - Marinerong Pilipino vs Cignal HD*

5 p.m. - Flying V* vs CEU

* - leads series, 1-0

MANILA, Philippines — With Flying V still unbeaten this 2017 PBA D-League Foundation Cup, coach Eric Altamirano has never felt any complacency knowing that the wars just gets more tougher as the conference goes.

And his words rung true on Thursday, when Centro Escolar University gave the Thunder all they could handle before the latter eked out the 65-61 Game One win.

“I think that’s why it’s called the playoffs. Tumaas talaga yung level ng CEU,” the soft-spoken mentor said.

Pulling off that great escape last week, Flying V seeks to do it all again and advance to the championship round when the two teams clash anew on Tuesday at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

But Altamirano acknowledges what it entails for the Thunder to do that, and the first bullet in the list is stopping the behemoth that is Rod Ebondo down low.

“We need to do a better job controlling the rebounds and blocking out their bigs. We just have to continue doing that. We’re gonna need that especially in the second game and we hope na matapatan namin yung level nila,” said the mentor, as he will once again rely on the leadership of Jeron Teng, Eric Salamat, and Gab Banal for their 5 p.m. game.

The Congolese Ebondo, meanwhile, is just keeping a positive vibe as he hopes to help CEU put the first blemish on Flying V’s record and equalize the best-of-three series after his stellar 20-point, 27-rebound performance in Game One.

“In basketball, nothing is impossible. We just have to deal with it and focus on the next game. This is a do-or-die for us,” he said, as he seeks to draw more contributions from his teammates JK Casiño and Aaron Jeruta. “We just have to come back stronger. We hope that we give our best and play hard to force a Game 3.”

In the other series, Cignal HD eyes to book a return trip to the Finals when it clashes against Marinerong Pilipino at 3 p.m.

But coach Boyet Fernandez knows that it won’t be an easy task for his side, especially with the way the Skippers fought back from a 24-point deficit before the Hawkeyes held on to an 86-67 Game 1 decision on Thursday.

“Marinero is always there in the game even though they were down by so many points. It will be tough again facing them because I'm pretty sure that coach Koy (Banal) will really prepare hard for us. We’ll watch the tape and look what are our advantages and really try to be methodical enough to really prepare against Marinerong Pilipino,” he said.

Raymar Jose, Jason Perkins, and Pamboy Raymundo will be counted on again to lead the fight for Cignal.

Coach Koy Banal, on the other hand, is seeking to draw more contributions from his studs Robbie Herndon, John Lopez and Mark Isip after a largely inefficient showing in the first game.

“I just asked the players if they really want to play, if they still have the desire to play in the semis. We’ve seen their capabilities and we did not play in our maximum potential. That’s what we’re expecting from them to bring in on Tuesday,” he said.