2007 PBA Fiesta Conference
The 2007 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Fiesta Conference or known as the 2007 Talk 'N Text PBA Fiesta Conference for sponsorship reasons, is the second conference of the 2006-07 season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Teams are allowed to pick an import with a maximum height-limit of 6-feet, 6-inches tall.
| 2007 PBA Fiesta Conference | |
|---|---|
| Duration | March 4 – July 20, 2007 |
| TV partner(s) | ABC |
| Finals | |
| Champions | Alaska Aces |
| Runners-up | Talk 'N Text Phone Pals |
| Awards | |
| Best Player | Mark Cardona (Talk 'N Text) |
| Best Import | Rosell Ellis (Alaska) |
| Finals MVP | Willie Miller (Alaska) |
| PBA Fiesta Conference chronology | |
< 2005-06
| |
| PBA conference chronology | |
The tournament began on March 4 and finished on July 20. The schedule will be shortened due to the league's commitment to the Philippine national basketball team while 12 players selected by national team head coach Chot Reyes will not play for their mother teams.
Red Bull Barako is the defending champions of the tournament. [1]
Talk 'N Text, a product of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, was the main sponsor of the tournament. They also sponsored the 2006-07 PBA Philippine Cup that ended a month before the tournament.
List of imports
The following is the list of imports, which had played for their respective teams at least once, with the returning imports in italics. Highlighted are the imports who stayed with their respective teams for the whole conference.
| # | Name | Team | Debuted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Compton | Welcoat Dragons | March 4 vs. Coca-Cola |
| 2 | Charles Clark III | Welcoat Dragons | March 4 vs. Coca-Cola |
| 3 | Anthony Johnson | Coca-Cola Tigers | March 4 vs. Welcoat |
| 4 | Jesse King | Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants | March 4 vs. Red Bull |
| 5 | James Penny | Red Bull Barako | March 4 vs. Purefoods |
| 6 | Shawn Daniels | Air21 Express | March 7 vs. Sta. Lucia |
| 7 | Marcellus Christian | Air 21 Express | March7 vs. Barangay Ginebra |
| 8 | Rosell Ellis | Alaska Aces | March 7 vs. Talk 'N Text |
| 9 | Rock Winston | Sta. Lucia Realtors | March 7 vs. Air21 |
| 10 | James Sullinger | Talk 'N Text Phone Pals | March 7 vs. Alaska |
| 11 | Vidal Massiah | San Miguel Beermen | March 9 vs. Red Bull |
| 12 | Rod Nealy | Barangay Ginebra Kings | March 11 vs. Alaska |
| 13 | Paul McMillan | San Miguel Beermen | March 17 vs. Coca-Cola |
| 14 | Marquin Chandler | Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants | March 21 vs. San Miguel |
| 15 | Galen Young | San Miguel Beermen | April 11 vs. Alaska |
| 16 | Rob Sanders | Welcoat Dragons | April 15 vs. San Miguel |
| 17 | Jeff Varem | Coca-Cola Tigers | April 20 vs. Barangay Ginebra |
| 18 | Wayland White | Welcoat Dragons | May 2 vs. Barangay Ginebra |
| 19 | Jamaal Williams | Sta. Lucia Realtors | May 2 vs. Air21 |
| 20 | Rashad Bell | Coca-Cola Tigers | May 30 vs. Red Bull |
Welcoat was allowed to have two imports. Compton, is an American citizen was born in the Philippines and was a member of the several local teams playing as a local.
Tournament format
- Double round eliminations. Worst team would be eliminated.
- Sixth- to ninth-best teams figure in the one-game wildcard playoffs.
- Sixth seed vs. Ninth seed
- Seventh seed vs. Eighth seed
- Winners will figure in a playoff to advance to the quarterfinals.
- Third- to fifth-best teams, and the winner of the wildcards advance to the best-of-three quarterfinals.
- Third seed vs. winner of wildcards.
- Fourth seed vs. fifth seed.
- The two best teams and the winners of the quarterfinals advance to the best-of-seven semifinals.
- First seed vs. winner of the third seed/wildcard winner quarterfinal series
- Second seed vs. winner of the fourth seed/fifth seed quarterfinal series
- The winners of the semifinals advance to the best-of-seven Finals; the losers figure in a one-game third-place playoff.
Elimination round
| Qualified for semifinals | |
| Qualified for quarterfinals | |
| Qualified for wildcards | |
| Eliminated |
Team standings
| Pos | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Bull Barako | 13 | 5 | .722 | — | Advance to semifinals |
| 2 | Alaska Aces | 12 | 6 | .667[lower-alpha 1] | 1 | |
| 3 | Barangay Ginebra Kings | 12 | 6 | .667[lower-alpha 1] | 1 | Advance to quarterfinals |
| 4 | Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters | 11 | 7 | .611 | 2 | |
| 5 | Air21 Express | 10 | 8 | .556[lower-alpha 2] | 3 | |
| 6 | San Miguel Beermen | 10 | 8 | .556[lower-alpha 2] | 3 | Advance to wildcard round |
| 7 | Coca-Cola Tigers | 7 | 11 | .389 | 6 | |
| 8 | Purefoods Chunkee Giants | 6 | 12 | .333 | 7 | |
| 9 | Sta. Lucia Realtors | 5 | 13 | .278 | 8 | |
| 10 | Welcoat Dragons | 4 | 14 | .222 | 9 |
Notes:
- Second-seed playoff: Alaska 103–95 Barangay Ginebra
- Fifth-seed playoff: Air21 103–99 San Miguel
Seeding playoffs
Ties were held for the second and fifth seeds; since the ties were at critical positions (i.e. the seeds were at the last berths for a stage), classification games will be held to determine which team will clinch the higher seed, and the privileges that go along with it.
Bracket
| Wildcard phase Knockout games |
Quarter finals Best of 3 series |
Semi finals Best of 7 series |
Finals Best of 7 series | |||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Brgy. Ginebra | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | San Miguel | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | San Miguel | 102 | 6 | San Miguel | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Sta. Lucia | 85 | 2 | Alaska | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | San Miguel | 102 | 2 | Alaska | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Coca-Cola | 101 | 4 | Talk 'N Text | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Coca-Cola | 100 | 1 | Red Bull | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Purefoods | 97 | 4 | Talk 'N Text | 4 | Third-place playoff | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Talk 'N Text | 2 | 6 | San Miguel | 96 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Air21 | 1 | 1 | Red Bull | 103 | |||||||||||||||||
Quarterfinals
Barangay Ginebra-San Miguel series
June 17 |
| San Miguel Beermen 117, Barangay Ginebra Kings 114 (OT) | ||
| San Miguel wins series, 2-1 |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City |
Talk 'N Text-Air21 series
June 17 |
| Air21 Express 112, Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 114 | ||
| Talk 'N Text wins series, 2-1 |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City |
Semifinals
Red Bull-Talk 'N Text series
July 1 |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 122, Red Bull Barako 110 | ||
| Talk 'N Text wins series, 4-2 |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City |
Alaska-San Miguel series
July 1 |
| San Miguel Beermen 109, Alaska Aces 113 (2OT) | ||
| Alaska wins series, 4-2 |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City |
Third-place playoff
July 4 |
| San Miguel Beermen 96, Red Bull Barako 103 | ||
| Red Bull wins third-place trophy |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City |
Finals
Prior to Game 1, Sandwich performed "Laban kung Laban," the TV theme song of the PBA.
Game 1
July 6 7:30 P.M. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 85, Alaska Aces 113 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 28-16, 16-29, 19-37, 22-31 | ||
| Pts: James Sullinger 25 Rebs: James Sullinger 12 Asts: Mark Cardona 3 |
Pts: Cortez, Ellis 22 each Rebs: Rosell Ellis 13 Asts: Rosell Ellis 10 | |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Referees: Cruz, Herrera, Ferrer |
Game 2
July 8 6:30 P.M. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 120, Alaska Aces 113 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 28-30, 25-30, 31-33, 27-29 | ||
| Pts: Mark Cardona 30 Rebs: Yancy de Ocampo 9 Asts: Mark Cardona 5 |
Pts: Rosell Ellis 40 Rebs: Rosell Ellis 18 Asts: Rosell Ellis 7 | |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Referees: Calungcaguin, Aldaba, Ferrer |
Game 3
July 11 7:30 P.M. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 95, Alaska Aces 87 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 15-30, 25-26, 27-12, 28-19 | ||
| Pts: James Sullinger 30 Rebs: James Sullinger 15 Asts: James Sullinger 8 |
Pts: Willie Miller 29 Rebs: Rosell Ellis 13 Asts: Ellis, Hugnatan 3 each | |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Referees: Montiel, Herrera, Canizares |
Game 4
July 13 7:30 P.M. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 82, Alaska Aces 86 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 25-21, 18-24, 23-18, 16-23 | ||
| Pts: James Sullinger 26 Rebs: James Sullinger 13 Asts: Donbel Belano 5 |
Pts: Willie Miller 29 Rebs: Rosell Ellis 14 Asts: Willie Miller 4 | |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Referees: Canizares, Aldaba, Cruz |
Game 5
July 15 6:30 p.m. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 107, Alaska Aces 104 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 31-25, 23-20, 25-27, 28-32 | ||
| Pts: James Sullinger 24 Rebs: Sullinger, Carey 8 each Asts: Mark Cardona 5 |
Pts: Rosell Ellis 28 Rebs: Rosell Ellis 16 Asts: Miller, Ellis 5 each | |
Game 6
July 18 7:05 p.m. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 110, Alaska Aces 121 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 34-22, 11-34, 31-38, 34-27 | ||
| Pts: Mark Cardona 29 Rebs: James Sullinger 9 Asts: James Sullinger 3 |
Pts: Willie Miller 37 Rebs: Rosell Ellis 16 Asts: Cortez, Ellis 8 each | |
Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City Referees: Cruz, Calungcaguin, Canizares |
Game 7
July 20 7:05 P.M. |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals 96, Alaska Aces 99 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 26-25, 27-20, 19-25, 24-29 | ||
| Pts: Sullinger 30 Rebs: Sullinger 13 Asts: Sullinger 5 |
Pts: Ellis 30 Rebs: Ellis 10 Asts: Ellis 9 | |
| Alaska wins series 4–3 | ||
On Game 1, the Phone Pals raced into a twenty-point lead at the first quarter but the Aces chipped in to lead by a point by halftime. The Phone Pals lost steam as the Aces won the first game. The Phone Pals reversed the roles as the Aces themselves lost steam at the ends of Games 2 and 3 for a Phone Pals 2-1 series lead.
With a 1–3 deficit looming, newly crowned MVP Willie Miller stepped up his performance as he tied his conference-high 29 points to lead the Aces into victory on Game 4. Conference Best Player Mark Cardona blew the Phone Pals chances' when he turned the ball over with 4 seconds with a 2-point deficit to lead a Rosell Ellis tip-in from a Sonny Thoss missed lay-up.
On Game 5, Willie Miller turned cold when the Phone Pals started pulling away. The Piltel franchise notched win #3 to assure a twice-to-beat advantage. Miller, who was severely criticized by a lackluster performance by the MVP, answered his critics with a 37-point output (the best in the Finals by a local) to lead the Aces to a Game 6 win and to force a Game 7.
References
- "Barako open Fiesta Cup defense vs TJ Giants". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
External links
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