B-Meg suffered a crucial defeat that may later prove costly as the Llamados yielded to the eliminated Meralco Bolts, 101-104, in the semifinal round of the 37th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum yesterday.
Instead of earning a piece of the lead in the team standings, the Llamados now find themselves tied with the streaking Barangay Ginebra Kings at second place with similar 8-4 (win-loss) records.
B-Meg went into the game looking to tie the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (9-3) at the top and bolster its chances of advancing to the championship round for the second straight conference.
Coming off two straight wins to start the semis, the Llamados were the clear favorites against the eliminated Bolts. But it was the Bolts who played inspired.
But the Llamados didn’t give up easily in this one as they came back from double digit deficits and nearly wiped out an 89-98 deficit with only 46 seconds left.
The Bolts missed five of six free throws in a crucial stretch that aided the Llamados comeback as James Yap scored five straight points that pulled B-Meg to within 98-99 with 7.9 seconds left.
Chris Ross converted a three-point play with 6.7 ticks left but Yap answered with a triple three seconds later that made it, 101-102.
Asi Taulave made a split free throw and Cardona added another one off a technical foul by B-Meg for calling excessive timeouts.
With 1.7 seconds left, B-Meg went for overtime but Yancy de Ocampo’s inbounds pass to Josh Urbiztondo was stolen by Ross as time ran out.