Playoff bonus race heats up
Painters plant a foot in twice-to-beat territory; Texters crush Aces to stay in hunt
Rain or Shine’s veterans hit the free throws that made the difference inside the final 7.6 seconds and keyed an 88-85 victory over Meralco on Friday night that gave the Elasto Painters at least a tie for the second quarterfinal bonus in the PBA Philippine Cup playoffs.
The Painters blew several double-digit leads in the third quarter and needed three free throws from Gabe Norwood and Beau Belga in the dying seconds to pull out the win and rise to 83, with only Phoenix Pulse having a better record going into the homestretch of the elimination round.
And that could change when the Fuel Masters battle San Miguel Beer in a Petron Saturday Special Game slated in Panabo, where Phoenix can tab the top ranking with a win in the 5 p.m. contest.
Phoenix can clinch the top spot with a victory while a defeat opens the possibility of a five-team tie at 8-3, which will necessitate the quotient—and even knockout games—to de- termine which two teams will own twice-to-beat advantages in the playoffs.
TNT stayed in the hunt for that 8-3 record when it notched its sixth win in nine games earlier in the day, crushing Alaska, 92-78.
“Our worry is our [ own] game,” TNT coach Bong Ravena said after catching the Beermen at 6-3. “Our target is to win our remaining [two] games and then we’ll see.”
Norwood broke the game’s last tie at 85 with a split, before Belga went 2-for-4 in the next two Rain or Shine offensives that doomed the Bolts to their sixth loss in nine games.
Meralco needs a sweep of its remaining two games to have a shot at a playoff for the last quarterfinal slot.
Alaska, meanwhile, needs a sweep of its remaining games for a complication-free entry to the quarterfinals after taking its fifth loss in eight games.
Ravena knows that victories in their last two games could set them up for a shot at a twice-tobeat privilege.
“What’s important right now is [for us] to win our last two games,” he said after RR Pogoy scattered 24 points in just over 20 minutes at Cuneta Astrodome for their fourth straight win. “We know we have a chance, but we first have to win our last two [games].”