By Jonas terrado
Game Today
(Mall of Asia Arena)
6:30 p.m. – Magnolia vs San Miguel
(Magnolia leads series 1-0)
The Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok, buoyed by their stunning comeback victory, shoot for a 2-0 lead against the defending champion San Miguel Beermen tonight as the PBA Philippine Cup Finals shifts to the Mall of Asia Arena for Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.
Magnolia pulled off the improbable two nights ago, rallying from a 20-point third quarter deficit to beat San Miguel, 105-103, in a thrilling opening act to the title series of the PBA’s preeminent tournament.
Coach Chito Victolero, however, refused to buy the notion that the Hotshots have gained momentum despite entering the series as underdogs against a Beermen side seeking a fourth straight title in the All-Filipino.
“Hopefully masustain namin tong energy na to,” Victolero said. “Sana lang yung hinabol naming malaki, di napagod players namin doon.”
Ian Sangalang, rookie Robbie Herndon and Rafi Reavis keyed Magnolia’s rally that left the talented Beermen side that held a 72-52 lead on a June Mar Fajardo three-point play with 9:21 remaining in the third.
San Miguel coach Leo Austria later rued his decision not to make defensive adjustments, allowing Sangalang to have a game of his life with 14 of his 25 points in the fourth, including the two go-ahead free throws off a Fajardo foul late.
“I guess na we fell in love with our defense because it gave us a lot of glory in the past few games, but I was not able to react the time when we need to go back to man-to-man,” said Austria, referring to the zone defense he made that enabled San Miguel to close out Ginebra in the semis.
But the Beermen are expected to regain their mean streak in the 6:30 p.m. match with Fajardo, the leading candidate for the Best Player of the Conference award, out to atone his 11-turnover showing despite 31 points and 19 rebounds.
Alex Cabagnot, Marcio Lassiter, Arwind Santos and Chris Ross are also tasked to play big roles anew but San Miguel wants to have more contribution from the bench, who only produced one point.
Ironically, that one point came from Ross, who was not placed in the starting lineup in lieu of Matt Ganuelas-Rosser.
Meanwhile, Paul Lee tries to recover from a four-point while Mark Barroca, Jio Jalalon, Rome dela Rosa and Kyle Pascual are also expected to lead Magnolia’s charge.
