Meralco secured the second seed in the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals after beating NLEX, 104-101, on Wednesday at the Don Honorio Ventura State University Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Only needing to win just one game out of their last two to clinch the second spot, which means a twice-to-beat advantage in the next round, the Bolts did the trick against the Road Warriors, who needed to win to escape the other side of the quarterfinal bonus.
Meralco quickly sizzled offensively, dropping 65 points already by halftime.
But as the team’s offense was settling down, NLEX pulled off a furious 13-0 rally that cut the lead down from 19 to just six, 101-95, with 1:40 remaining.
Bong Quinto appeared to have scored the dagger basket for the Bolts, but rookie Calvin Oftana scored back-to-back triples that cut the lead further to just two, 103-101, with 2.4 seconds left.
The Road Warriors thought they got a shot to force overtime after Raymond Almazan missed the tail end of his two free throws off a JR Quinahan foul with 1.6 seconds to go, but Quinto tapped the ball out of bounds as time ran out on them.
Allein Maliksi scored 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting including 4-for-6 from three-point range, four rebounds, and one assist for Meralco, which moved up to 7-3 with only a showdown against Ginebra on Thursday left in its elimination round schedule.
Alvin Pasaol added a PBA career-high 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, two rebounds, and one steal.
Almazan put up a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds with three blocks.
Oftana dropped 34 markers on 12-of-18 field goals including eight triples, the new record for the most three-pointers by a rookie in a game, three rebounds, one dime, two blocks, and one steal for NLEX, which fell to 5-6.
Source: Philippines News Agency
