Ian Sangalang may had been the biggest star on Friday night, but Rafi Reavis proved to be the savior of the Magnolia Hotshots in the 2018 Philippine Cup Finals’ curtain-raiser against the imposing San Miguel Beermen.
The 40-year-old big man swatted away Arwind Santos’ potential game-tying jumper with less than two ticks left to help Magnolia complete their comeback from 20 down and stun San Miguel, 105-103, to take a 1-0 lead in the race-to-four series.
“We just stuck to our principle, which is defense,” said Reavis, who finished with six points, nine rebounds, and three blocks in over 26 minutes.
“We never stop playing defense until the last second of the game.”
Defense has always been the Hotshots’ calling card, and for Reavis, it was the main reason why he and Magnolia were able to turn things around after facing a deficit as huge as 20 points, 52-72, early in the third chapter.
The Beermen truly suffered with their rivals’ stifling defense, as they committed 20 turnovers — errors that the Hotshots converted to 20 points.
“Whether they’re up ten and we’re down ten, we just have to stick to what we know best and that’s defense,” said the 16-year league veteran, who averaged 1.1 blocks prior to the Finals. “That’s what pulled us through tonight.”
Reavis also had a hand in defending the reigning, four-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo. Fajardo still had 31 points and 18 rebounds, but he committed 55 percent of San Miguel’s turnovers, as he had 11.
“He’s a monster down there, we know that. We know we have our work cut out. We’re just trying to give him a little work to do also — we don’t want it to be all fun and games for him,” said the six-foot-eight Filipino-American.
It is known that the Hotshots are rallying in this Finals behind their injured leader Marc Pingris. And now that they have been able to win one over the defending champions, Reavis said that it only shows how ready all of them are.
“No matter who’s there or who’s not there, we have a saying that it’s just the next man up. Ping is a big part of our organization, he’s a big part of what we do here, but that’s why we have other guys in uniform ready to perform,” expressed the 10-time champion.
“It’s a big weight on our shoulders but going into the season we knew that anything could happen. We accept the challenge no matter what.”
