NLEX hung on to survive Ginebra, 76-72, to advance to the PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup quarterfinals, Sunday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Richie Rodger canned the all-important free throws with 1.2 seconds left to play as the Road Warriors proved lucky enough to escape after coughing up a big lead, in the process clinching the sixth seed entering the next round.
Now that they have ended a four-game losing slide as well, Coach Frankie Lim’s wards have set up a best-of-3 showdown with Meralco.
“After four consecutive losses, it’s nice to get a win again. Lalo na sa Ginebra pa,” said the veteran mentor, totally relieved after the nail-biting affair.
“Although we should have handled our last five minutes a lot better. There were times that we made bad decisions. I felt we could have [had] better shots. But at the same time, my guys didn’t give up. They held their own,” he added.
Robert Bolick paced NLEX with 25 points, six rebounds, and eight assists in the win that almost proved elusive once more after going on a dry spell.
The Road Warriors went scoreless for over seven minutes and witnessed the Kings get to within just three, 73-70, after being down by 12, but Lady Luck remained on their side as their foes failed to capitalize on their chances.
Maverick Ahanmisi, for one, made just two of his three free throws that could have tied the game at 73-all with 32.5 seconds remaining.
The crowd darlings still had a chance staring at a 74-72 deficit with 3.3 seconds to go, but his inbound intended for Ralph Cu was not caught by the latter as the rookie big man was not able to establish his footing to receive the ball.
The loose ball went straight into Rodger’s hands, and the neophyte guard would go on to ice the game by calmly sinking both of his charities.
“We denied all entry passes and they turned the ball over. Again, Mr. Bolick did a lot tonight. Same with guys like Richie Rodger, si Herndon, Baser Amer, and our bigs, Tony, Sean. They played their hearts out tonight,” Lim said.
Rodger scored 11 points to be the only other Road Warrior to finish in double figures in the win that enabled the crew to finish the eliminations at 6-5.
Christian Standhardinger, meanwhile, had 19 points to lead Ginebra, who, despite the loss, will still head into the quarters as the no. 2 seed, armed with a twice-to-beat advantage against the seventh-seeded Magnolia.
Japeth Aguilar had 15 points while Ahanmisi added 14 for the Kings.
The Scores:
NLEX 76 – Bolick 25, Rodger 11, Herndon 9, Miranda 8, Semerad 8, Amer 7, Anthony 4, Marcelo 4, Fajardo 0, Valdez 0, Taha 0.
Ginebra 72 – Standhardinger 19, J.Aguilar 15, Ahanmisi 14, Pringle 7, Cu 5, Thompson 4, Tenorio 2, Pessumal 2, Onwubere 2, David 0, Pinto 0, Murrell 0.
Quarterscores: 23-16, 35-32, 59-54, 76-72
