Doing exactly what the Meralco Bolts did in Game 1, the B-Meg Llamados lived to fight another day and forged a sudden-death showdown in their quarterfinal series of the 37th PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Llamados built several 20-point leads in the early stages of the game and withstood the Bolts’ late-game rally to hack out a, 95-85 win in Game 2 of their best-of-three series last night at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Bolts took the series-opener, 103-81, where they also led by as many as 23 points before surviving the Llamados’ final push in the fourth period.
With their backs against the wall, the Llamados jumped to a hot start and quickly broke the game wide open by posting a 32-13 lead in the first period.
Meralco’s bid of sweeping the Llamados took a major blow when top local Mark Cardona was ejected in the 10:50 mark of the first period for incurring two technical fouls. Before he was tossed, Cardona, who scored 22 points in Game 1, was assessed with a flagrant foul penalty one after hitting B-Meg import Denzel Bowles in the head.
The Llamados maintained sizable leads after that strong first quarter showing but got outscored in the third, 39-24, allowing the Bolts to close in at, 68-76, going into the fourth.
The Llamados weathered the storm and restored an, 85-72 lead in the final 7:08 before the Bolts made one last push to threaten at, 83-91 courtesy of a three-point play by Asi Taulava off a foul by Bowles in final 2:03.
That foul was Bowles’ sixth, forcing the Llamados to finish the game with an All-Filipino crew.
The Bolts however, failed to capitalize on B-Meg’s handicap as they could only muster two points the rest of the way.
BOX SCORES
B-MEG (95)- Pingris 21, Bowles 20, Simon 15, Urbiztondo 13, Devance 10, Yap 8, Intal 4, Barroca 2, Reavis 2, De Ocampo 0.
MERALCO (85)- Barron 39, Mercado 18, Macapagal 9, Taulava 7, Ross 4, Timberlake 2, Yee 2, Aljamal 2, Cardona 2, Borboran 0, Hugnatan 0. QUARTERSCORES: 32-13, 52-29, 76-68, 95-85.