EXCITING LAST FOUR SET
BOLTS FINALLY PULL ONE OVER KINGS
Games Wednesday (Smart Araneta Coliseum) 3 p.m. – TNT vs Magnolia 6 p.m. – Meralco vs San Miguel Beer The stage is set for a double dose of explosive duels between the MVP Group’s top teams and the San Miguel Corp.’s stalwarts in the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.
Meralco set up a Final Four date with former all-Filipino five-peat kingpin San Miguel Beer after breaking the stranglehold of long-time tormentor Barangay Ginebra in a hard-fought quarterfinal do-or-die, 106-104, last night at the MOA Arena.
Magnolia, meanwhile, forged a grudge rematch with last year’s finals conqueror TNT in the semis on the strength of a 112-106 overtime thriller over NLEX.
The TNT-Magnolia and SMBMeralco best-of-seven duels blast off on Wednesday.
Chris Newsome delivered a tripledouble of 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists as the Bolts survived a near-meltdown and finally put one over the Gin Kings after six previous playoffs heartbreakers.
“We just proved that if you’re relentless, if you keep the fight, great things will happen,” said Newsome, who helped bail out Meralco in the face of the furious Ginebra uprising by feeding Raymond Almazan with the dagger trey with a minute left.
“We enjoyed the challenge of playing Ginebra; it’s something that we look forward to and we finally pulled through. But this is just half of the job,” added Newsome.
Earlier, Jio Jalalon came through with a clutch steal to help preserve a tied contest in the dying seconds of regulation then rifled in seven of his 16 points in extra time to spark a decisive 15-9 windup for Magnolia.
“I’m very proud because we were down, hindi kami nag-give up. The players showed their mental toughness, grit and determination,” said Magnolia coach Chito Victolero, whose charges trailed by as many as seven points and even faced a 97-94 deficit at the 1:00 mark of the fourth.
Victolero said the grindout decider of the race-to-two quarterfinal series pretty much prepped the Hotshots for the coming battle with last year’s conqueror TNT. The No. 2 Tropang Giga cashed in on their win-once bonus against No. 7 Converge, 11695, to reach the semifinal quickly last Wednesday.
“Thankful ako sa talagang binigay na laban ng NLEX. They deserve to also go to the semis, ang ganda din ng nilaro nila. It boiled down to one possession, one rebound, one miss. I think ni-ready nila kami sa semis,” he said.
The Hotshots’ grit was in full display in the homestretch of the payoff period, where after a dry spell, they got the equalizer off a huge corner trey by Paul Lee. The scores: First Game Magnolia 112 – Sangalang 24, Lee 21, Jalalon 16, Barroca 14, Abueva 13, Dela Rosa 12, Corpuz 6, Dionisio 4, Wong 2.
NLEX 106 – Oftana 32, Trollano 22, Alas 17, Chua 10, Semerad 8, Quiñahan 8, Rosales 5, Varilla 2, Nieto 2, Soyud 0.
Quarterscores: 26-30, 51-54, 79-78, 97-97, 112-106 Second Game Meralco 106 – Newsome 21, Black 17, Hodge 13, Maliksi 12, Quinto 11, Almazan 11, Pasaol 11, Banchero 4, Jose 4, Pascual 2.
Ginebra 104 – Thompson 26, Standhardinger 23, J.Aguilar 21, Pringle 12, Tenorio 12, Pinto 6, Chan 4, Caperal 0, Onwubere 0, Mariano 0.
Quarterscores: 24-18, 55-42, 85-76, 106-104