Still rolling
It was probably the longest time it took for a team to build a four-game winning streak, but Magnolia made sure it wouldn’t lose the steam it built heading into the PBA Governors’ Cup break and kept its winning streak intact on Friday.
The Hotshots shrugged off a pesky Blackwater Bossing side, 107-101, at Ninoy Aquino Stadium for a win that kept them within the top four positions in an unpredictable Group B and helped them prepare for two tough opponents to close out the group stage.
Jerom Lastimosa, who had 24 points and seven assists, was one of the key players who helped Magnolia to a fourth straight victory and fifth in eight games.
“Coach (LA Tenorio) said that we had the momentum [before the break], and we didn’t want to waste that,” said Lastimosa, the game’s best player who rode on a productive first half.
Magnolia was among the teams that started practice early during the hiatus, even with Tenorio preoccupied with duties as assistant coach of Gilas Pilipinas in the Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
The Hotshots also had a significant number of tuneup games, including two against foreign clubs that came to town: the Changwon LG Sakers of the Korean Basketball League and Omni Erdenet Miners of Mongolia.
The busy Gilas break seemed to have worked well for the Hotshots, at least in this contest, which they will look to carry on Sunday against Barangay Ginebra and Rain or Shine on Oct. 21.
“Somehow, somewhere down the road, we will face the elite teams,” said Tenorio. “We will try to find ways to defend them.”
For now, Tenorio is glad that Magnolia stayed inside the top four in the quarterfinal chase. The Hotshots climbed to a provisional hold on second in Group B, trailing Rain or Shine (4-2) and staying ahead of Phoenix (4-3) and Blackwater (3-4).
Also big for the Hotshots was import KJ Buffen, who put together 24 points and 20 rebounds in arguably his best performance yet in the conference.
Meanwhile, TNT and San Miguel Beer square off in a big tiff in Group A on Saturday at Ynares Center in Antipolo with a tipoff time of 7:30 p.m.
San Miguel, already sure of a quarterfinals berth at 7-2, plays its first game since the break while TNT (5-4) is coming off a 116-92 rout of Terrafirma on Wednesday.
The first game at 5:15 p.m. will see how hapless Macau can get its feet together after being handed a record-setting 60-point defeat by NLEX. The guest team Giant Pandas, at 2-7, take on the Dyip.
The embarrassing defeat could end Macau’s participation in future PBA tournaments. The team, already struggling to come up with a strong performance this conference, hit an all-time low against NLEX when it showed up with just nine uniformed players.
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
