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IT’S a battle of champions when defending champion Sta. Lucia
Realty faces Fiesta Conference titlist Barangay Ginebra Wednesday in
the 34th KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Kings and the Realtors, both less affected
by revamps and trade of players, will collide at 7:30 p.m.
Sta. Lucia is seeking to become the first team
in 24 years to win back-to-back All-Filipino titles. The last team
to achieve the feat was Great Taste in 1985.
Playing in the curtain-raiser at 5 p.m. are
Purefoods, last year’s runner-up, and Red Bull.
Purefoods, which is tied with San Miguel Beer
and Great Taste with four All-Filipino titles, has three rookies in
Beau Belga, Richard Alonzo and Jonathan Fernandez.
But with the addition of Topex Robinson, Aaron
Aban and Paolo Bugia, the seven-time champion Purefoods, the sixth-winningest
team in the league behind SMB (17), Crispa (13), Alaska (12), Toyota
(9) and Ginebra (8), is favored over the three-time titlist Red
Bull, which won its last title in the 2005-2006 Fiesta Conference.
Despite placing only third in the last two
conferences, Barakos surprised many by winning the most number of
games.
Spearheading Red Bull are Cyrus Baguio, Jojo
Duncil, Leomar Najorda, Carlo Sharma, Michael Hrabak and rookies
Larry Rodriguez, Jeffrey Chan and Paolo Hubalde.
-- Frank C. Calapre
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