Hotshots drag Bolts to winner-take-all Game 5

The real Magnolia showed up for its do-or-die match against Meralco and came away with a 94-73 rout in Game 4 of the semifinal round in the 2021 PBA Governors’ Cup, Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The victory enabled the Hotshots, who lost the last 2 games to the Bolts after taking the series opener, to equalize the series at 2-games apiece and force a winner-take-all match for the second Finals ticket. Brgy. Ginebra earlier became the first team to advance to the championship round following its 3-1 semis series romp over the NLEX Road Warriors.

Mike Harris showed the way for the champs of the 2018 edition of the season-ending conference with 34 points on an efficient 16-of-22 shooting clip to go with 18 rebounds, an assist and a block in 38 minutes of play.

Siguro medyo nawawala sa amin in the last two games was how we enjoyed the game. Right now, those are the two words — the grind, and we need to enjoy the game. ‘Yun lang ‘yung ginawa namin,” said head coach Chito Victolero during the post-game presser.

“‘No more tomorrow’ was the mentality. We just tried to live one game at a time. Pinag-usapan lang namin is every possession, we need to grind. Possession by possession, on both ends of the floor,” he added.

Paul Lee bounced back from a mediocre showing the past two games and finished with 17 points in 25 minutes of action. Calvin Abueva came though with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals while Jio Jalalon and Jack Corpuz chipped in 10 and 9 markers, respectively.

The Hotshots will try to arrange a Finals Clasico when the two sides clash for one last time on Friday, April 1, 6:00pm at the same venue.

The scores:

Magnolia 94 – Harris 34, Lee 17, Abueva 11, Jalalon 10, Corpuz 9, Barroca 5, Sangalang 4, Brill 2, Reavis 2, Dela Rosa 0, Wong 0.

Meralco 73 – Bishop 22, Newsome 11, Almazan 8, Banchero 7, Maliksi 7, Quinto 6, Caram 4, Black 3, Hodge 3, Baclao 2, Belo 0, Canete 0, Pasaol 0.

Quarterscores: 20-19, 42-30, 62-52, 94-73.