After 2 career milestones in PH Cup, Mark Barroca hoping another Magnolia title is next

Mark Barroca has achieved two career milestones in the ongoing PBA Season 47 Philippine Cup.

The 38-year old Barroca played in his 500th consecutive game in the league during the Hotshots’ match against NLEX in the elimination round and then scored his 5,000th career point, also against the Road Warriors, during 1 Game of the their best-of-three quarterfinals series.

The SMC-owned franchise, fortunately, won both games.

With the team now one win away from advancing to the semifinal round, the 5th overall pick of the 2011 draft hopes to cap this momentous conference in his career with another title – his seventh and the franchise’s 15th.

“Sa career ko, wala naman akong hinahangad kundi mag-champion,” said Barroca whose last title came during the 2018 Governors’ Cup.

“’Yun naman sabi ko kay coach na binuo ang team na ‘to hindi ang para makuha ‘yung award. Bonus ‘yung award pero ang goal namin is manalo ng championship,” he added.

The Hotshots came close to bagging the Philippine Cup crown last year but run into a brick wall of a team in TNT. The Tropang Giga dropped only 1 game on the way to picking up their 6th All-Filipino Cup trophy.

Barroca, however, hopes that things would end up differently this year especially with Calvin Abueva finally settling down with the team.

“’Yung nakuha namin si Calvin, ang usapan namin nila coach, it’s about three years na itong program na ginagawa namin ngayon. Sana makakuha ng championship especially itong grupo na ‘to. Sana pagtrabahuan. Lagi kaming nagpe-prepare sa offseason. Lahat may extra work, hindi lang sa team kundi sa outside, bawat isa, nageextra.”