Magnolia took no chances whatsoever and crushed an all-Filipino Meralco, 129-92, to remain in the hunt for a quarterfinal spot in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup, Friday evening at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
The Hotshots faced a Bolts side still without Akil Mitchell due to a nagging back injury and that was an opening they took full advantage of, leaning on Ricardo Ratliffe to dictate the pace early toward the wire-to-wire victory.
With the result, Coach Chito Victolero’s wards will finish the elimination round with a 6-6 record, and more importantly have forced a playoff for the no. 8 spot against either Rain or Shine (6-5) or NLEX (6-6) this Sunday in Antipolo.
The Elasto Painters are set to wrap up the preliminaries later tonight with a duel against TNT, which has secured the no. 2 seed thanks to Magnolia.
Ratliffe finished with 31 points and 19 rebounds to lead the way as the veteran import proved too much for the remaining Meralco big men.
