THE MERALCO Bolts finalized the quarterfinal pairings after they pulled off an 87-77 win over the San Mig Coffee Mixers last night in the 38th PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
With the win, the Bolts secured the no. 4 spot and arranged a best-of-three quarterfinal series against the Alaska Aces. The other race-to-two series will pit the fifth-seeded Barangay Ginebra Kings against the third-ranked Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
The Kings (7-7) lost their last elimination game to Talk ’N Text (12-2) in yesterday’s second game, 80-87, but the results didn’t change anything.
The playoffs will start on Wednesday with the Kings and the Painters facing off in the first game and the Aces tackling the Bolts in the main game.
The other set of quarterfinal series will have the defending champions Talk ’N Text Tropang Texters going up against the eighth-seed Air21 Express and the Coffee Mixers taking on the seventh Petron Blaze Boosters.
Talk ’N Text and San Mig will be armed with a twice-to-beat advantage for finishing one and two after the elimination round.
The Bolts and the Aces both finished the preliminary round with 8-6 (win-loss) records but the latter secured the ranking due to their superior quotient.
San Mig collected 10 wins against four losses, while Rain or Shine piled up nine wins with five defeats./EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CALVIN D. CORDOVA