Prior to Game Three of Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters’ 2019 PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series with San Miguel Beermen on Sunday night, Matthew Wright had a case of bronchitis.
“Si Matt, tatlong araw nang may sakit yan eh… Ang ano ko lang, sana ‘wag lumala yung bronchitis niya,” bared Phoenix head coach Louie Alas.
“Bronchitis pero mild case lang.”
But that wasn’t enough to make Wright miss Sunday’s match.
And he was even the star.
Thanks to his timely free throws down the stretch, the Fuel Masters finally defeated the defending four-time all-Filipino champions, 92-90, to avoid falling down into a deadly 0-3 hole.
“I have a little bit of a sore throat, but you gotta man up,” said Wright, who had 18 points. “This is the playoffs. Everybody’s aching, everybody’s injured, no one’s feeling one hundred percent.
“We have a job to do and there’s no way I was gonna miss the game.”
The victory is sweeter since the Fuel Masters have snared their first-ever semifinal win in franchise history. For Wright, it was their resiliency that made wonders.
“I’m happy we won today, we can’t go down three-zero to San Miguel and expect to win. I’m glad we finally put forty-eight minutes together,” said Phoenix’s franchise player.
“I felt like last game, we let it slip. We only played forty-five minutes,” added Wright, recalling Game Two where they lost, 82-92.
“But today we were tough, and I felt like we wanted it more than them.”
But while Wright is happy that Phoenix have finally broken through, he still cautioned that there’s no time to celebrate.
“It’s good to get the monkey off our backs in this series. We finally got a win. It’s a quick turnaround but we got another game,” he said. “San Miguel’s not gonna give up. They’re resilient as well.
“But we’ll be ready.”
