CONVERGE will be facing Barangay Ginebra on Saturday enjoying some sort of a homecourt advantage in their PBA Philippine Cup out-of-town game at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
The FiberXers trace their roots to Pampanga with team owner Dennis Uy hailing from the northern province, where one of the team's assistant coaches happen to be incumbent governor Dennis ‘Delta’ Pineda.
A few players of the FiberXers are also from the province led by Justine Baltazar, who is returning to the venue that is also the home court of the Pampanga Giant Lanterns - a team he guided to two MPBL championships.
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But Converge coach Franco Atienza said it doesn’t necessarily follow that the FiberXers will have home court advantage since they will be going up against the country’s most popular ballclub.
“Siguro ‘yung buong Pilipinas, home game ng Ginebra,” said Atienza. “Hindi lang buong Pilipinas. When I was still with Alaska, nasa Dubai kami, lahat sumisigaw ng Ginebra. Nasa Dubai na ‘yun.”
Atienza was referring to the time he was still the assistant coach of Alaska back when the Aces played an overseas game against Ginebra in 2015.
“’Yung Ginebra, kahit saang venue, home nila,” he added.
Converge is on a three-game winning streak and owns a 4-2 win-loss record after defeating Rain or Shine, 107-97, last April 30.
Yet Atienza said they are preparing for a daunting test from the Gin Kings.
The 2-2 Kings are coming off an 89-86 loss to NLEX last Wednesday, but are still considered one of the title favorites being runners-up in the past two all-Filipino conferences.
“That’s the birth place of our company. ‘Yung team owner hails from there also. Gov. Delta is from there. A couple of our players are from Pampanga. We want to [claim it] na home away from home. But still, ‘yung Ginebra, baka buong gym, karamihan sa gym, Ginebra pa rin,” said Atienza.
The Converge coach nonetheless welcomed the challenge.
“That’s nice. If you are up against that great challenge and adversity, it will speak about your character. Hopefully, we pass the test,” said Atienza.
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