Victolero, Hotshots won’t yield despite Beermen’s edge in Finals

THE Magnolia Hotshots’ backs are against the wall in their Finals series against the San Miguel Beermen but head coach Chito Victolero’s confident his wards will fight back in Game 6.

“We still like our chances and everything remains positive for us,” Victolero told Businessmirror on Tuesday ahead of their 7:30 p.m. game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup championship duel which the Beermen only need to win to wrap up the title on Wednesday night.

Victolero knows where his team is coming from—they fell behind 0-2, but fought back the next two games where they held San Miguel Beer below 100 points to tie the series.

They lost Game 5 which, for Victolero, looks like a familiar territory.

San Miguel Beer blasted Magnolia’s defense by hitting 16 triples—eight from Jericho Cruz— for a 108-98 victory to move a win away from its 29th PBA crown.

“We started 0-2 and then we came back, we just have to stick together,” Victolero said. “Our adjustments will play a vital role in Game 6.”

He added: “The breaks didn’t go on our way in Game 5 so I’m very confident we can find a way to tie the series [again].”

The Hotshots were like leeches in defense when they won Games 3 and 4, 88-80 and 96-85, respectively.

“Our defense turned weak last time. I hope we played good defense again,” said guard Mark Barroca, who’s averaging 13 points and 4.6 assists. “But just like what Coach Chito said, I still like our chances.”

Six-foot-7 Ian Sangalang expects fellow Kapampangan workhorse Calvin Abueva to deliver in Game 6, saying that his former San Sebastián teammate has a lot left in his arsenal.

“We haven’t seen the best of Calvin yet in this series and we believe he’s going to show it in Game 6,” Sangalang said. “We loosened our defense last time as we allowed Jericho Cruz and Simon Enciso to get their rhythm.”

Import Tyler Tarik Bey, who’s tallying 23.8 points and 11.8 rebounds in the series, isn’t yielding at all.

“I feel good about this conference. We came back back from 0-2. We can do it again and we can win two more games,” he said.