CALVIN ABUEVA engineered a fourth-quarter breakaway to lift Magnolia over Meralco, 88-79, in Game One of their best-of-seven semifinals series in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup on Sunday at the Don Honorio Ventura State University gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Abueva scattered eight points in a 20-3 Magnolia burst that gave the Hotshots a commanding 82-72 advantage with close to three minutes remaining.
The Hotshots didn’t look back after that enroute to the head start in the long semifinal showdown.
“We didn’t expect this to be an easy game, but a grinding game because you cannot set aside Meralco,” Magnolia coach Chito Victolero said. “They are here in the semifinals for a reason.”
“It’s very important to take Game 1 in this series,” added Victolero, who was slapped a technical foul along with Meralco’s Raymond Almazan for taunting.
Abueva finished with 13 points and cemented his bid for the Best Player of the Conference award by also hauling down seven rebounds and making two steals. He melted Meralco’s 69-63 lead early in the fourth period by leading that decisive run despite nursing four fouls.
“I’m thankful to Calvin [Abueva], I knew he wanted to play, so I told him to be careful,” Victiolero said,. “He helped us a lot in those crucial minutes.”
Ian Sangalang racked up 18 points as Abueva warmed the bench because of foils. He also had eight rebounds to compliment Paul Lee’s 17 and Jio Jalalon’s 12 points.
“Coach Chito [Victolero] challenged us to step up and we did our job,” Sangalang said. “We also handled our emotions in this game, we didn’t complain and we let the coaches do their job on the sidelines.”
The Hotshots outscored the Bolts, 27-15, in the final period after trailing 61-64 at the end of third frame.
The Hotshots redeemed themselves from a 94-95 loss in the eliminations last September 1 on Chris Newsome’s game-clinching layup. Magnolia squandered a 13-point lead in that loss.
TNT Tropang Giga withstood San Miguel Beer’s furious rally in the fourth quarter to escape with an 89-88 victory in Game One of their own best-of-seven semifinals series.
Tropang Giga almost squandered a 77-65 cushion early in the payoff period after the Beermen came to within jabbing distance, 88-89, on CJ Perez’s back-to-back baskets with 33 seconds to go.
But Marcio Lassiter couldn’t connect a floater at the buzzer allowing TNT to escape with the win.
Roger Pogoy finished with his conference-high 23 points while Jayson Castro added 16 points, six rebounds and six assists for TNT.
Perez led the Beermen with 23 points.