ANTIPOLO — Meralco simply refused to get swept and went on to send Magnolia packing by way of a 105-102 overtime victory to advance to the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup semifinals at the Ynares Center here, Saturday.
Skeptics have been on the Bolts’ tails after losing twice in their last two meetings that put their conference in danger, but managed to get their act together in time and showed much better poise, especially when the going got tough.
Bong Quinto helped set the tone in extra time by scoring its first bucket, then came CJ Cansino and Cliff Hodge with key hits as well to keep themselves in the game, with Jerom Lastimosa carrying much of the load for the other team.
It then went down to a battle between who would budge first and that proved to be the Hotshots, with the sophomore guard only splitting his shots from the stripe and failing to tie the game at 102-all with 23.5 seconds remaining.
Things would turn from bad to worse for Magnolia as Cansino and Quinto added on their lead through separate trips to the free throw line inside the final 21.1, and it didn’t help that Lastimosa committed a turnover with seven ticks left.
Coach Luigi Trillo and his men would go on to escape with the narrow win, becoming the third team to reach the Final Four after Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Rain or Shine completed half of the cast last night.
Now, Meralco will wait for the winner between NLEX and TNT for its opponents in the best-of-7 semifinals which begins this coming Wednesday.
