Jared Dillinger of Meralco shoots over NLEX’s Sean Anthony in yesterday’s quarterfinal game. (PBA IMAGES)
Games Today
(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
4:15 p.m. – Barangay Ginebra vs Rain or Shine
7 p.m. – Alaska vs Tropang TNT
With a twice-to-beat privilege for the first time in franchise history, Meralco needed to dig deep all game last night to not put it to waste.
The Bolts rallied from several double-digit deficits in the first half and from nine down in the fourth before winning out in a pulsating endgame to trip sister team NLEX, 104-97, and be the first team to make the Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup’s Final Four at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
In the second game, the top-seeded San Miguel Beermen wasn’t as lucky as Meralco as the Philippine Cup champions faltered in the second half to lose to sister-team Star Hotshots, 99-108.
With the loss, the Beermen will have to duke it out again with the eighth-seeded Star tomorrow with the winner advancing to the semifinals.
Several men stood out for the Bolts, who entered the semifinals in this conference for the second straight year, as practically the entire team made up for import Arinze Onuaku’s difficult night of trying to solve the clamping inside defense of the Road Warriors in the paint.
Reynel Hugnatan scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth and rookie Chris Newsome had seven before Onuaku tipped in a Jared Dillinger miss with 28 seconds left that made it 98-94.
It was Onuaku’s biggest basket of the game as the hulking import struggled against the double-teaming defense of the Road Warriors whenever he got a touch inside.
And coach Norman Black feels that how they handle that against any team in the semifinals will dictate how deep they can go in this conference.
“It was a hard-fought game and we had a difficult time breaking their (inside) defense,” Black said. “Solving that would say how far we can go (the rest of the playoffs).”
Meralco, the second seed, also made it to the Final Four last year but bombed out with little fight against Rain or Shine after import Josh Davis got injured.
Cliff Hodge had 19 points and nine rebounds, Dillinger 18 and Newsome 15 to highlight a total team effort for the Bolts, who got 13 points and 11 boards from Onuaku.
The Bolts will await the winner of the Alaska-Tropang TNT series, which the Texters lead, 1-0.
Al Thornton scored 38 points and Garvo Lanete 21 for the Road Warriors, who took to the exit and joined early casualties Blackwater, GlobalPort, Phoenix Petroleum and Mahindra in an early vacation.
Meanwhile, the Texters and the Elasto Painters shoot for sweeps of their respective best-of-three quarterfinals series against the Aces and crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra also at the Big Dome today.
The Painters take the floor first at 4:15 p.m. with momentum on their side as they hope to duplicate a come-from-behind Game 1 victory over a Ginebra side that got just 10 points from import Othyus Jeffers on Sunday night.
Game 2 of Tropang TNT against Alaska is set at 7 p.m.