Cardona fuels late Meralco run
Mark Cardona is the one player fans of other teams love to hate, and with good reason. He taunts the crowd after making a great play, he drinks in the boos (in fact, he seems to be energized by the booing), and then, to the consternation of his haters, he just goes out and destroys the other team.
Last night, Cardona was at his best — both as a scorer and a taunter — scoring 10 of his 22 points during a murderous 18-0 fourth-quarter run to help the Meralco Bolts wallop the B-Meg Llamados, 103-81, and take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three quarterfinal series.
The third-seeded Llamados had erased most of an early 23-point deficit to come within three, 80-77, on a Josh Urbiztondo fastbreak layup when Captain Hook just flat out took over. He scored on one of his patented floaters to stop the B-Meg run, assisted on a Mark Macapagal three, then buried another basket to hike Meralco's lead back up to double digits at 87-77.
After Earl Barron sank a free throw off a technical foul called on Tim Cone, Cardona hit two more baskets to push the lead to 15 at 92-77 and send the B-Meg fuming over his antics each time he scored. At this point, even Cone lost his cool, drawing a second technical foul and getting ejected. Barron again sank the technical free throw, and an Asi Taulava a three-point play followed by another Cardona basket completed the 18-0 run.
"This is an enormous breakthrough win for the franchise, our first breakthrough win," said Coach Ryan Gregorio of his Bolts, who registered their first-ever quarterfinal win in their young PBA history and moved within one more win of their first-ever semifinal appearance.
"The reason's obvious. It's is our commitment to play defense," Gregorio added. Meralco forced B-Meg into 19 turnovers, which they translated into 27 turnover points. The Bolts have now won four in a row and five of their last six as they are finally settling down.
"We're slowly maturing," Gregorio said. "We're so composed. It's a very good indication of our maturity."
Indeed, the Bolts didn't fold when the Llamados fought back from a 50-27 second-quarter deficit after Cone went with a backcourt of point guards Urbiztondo and Mark Barroca to pressure the Meralco guards and force turnovers. Cardona simply stepped in and took over, and B-Meg couldn't answer back, with James Yap going scoreless in fourth period for the second straight game.
Meralco can wrap up the series on Wednesday and advance to a semifinal clash with Barangay Ginebra.
"Nobody wins with one game. We focus again on Wednesday," Gregorio said. "The plan is to play consistent basketball. The comfort level of our team right now is on defense. Our team is defined by the kind of defense we play. Defense will bring us to our goal of finally nailing a semis seat for this franchise."
The unsung hero in Meralco's run has been the 39-year-old Taulava, who has teamed up well with Barron in a twin towers combination. The Rock came up with another double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end. His effort on the rebounding end has allowed Barron to shoot from the outside and spread the defense.
"It's a blessing in disguise for not using Asi early (in the conference)," Gregorio said of his decision to use Taulava sparingly in the first few games. "Now he has a lot of gas in his tank. We're gonna be dependent on him on defense."
Barron had 34 and 11 for Meralco as he totally outplayed Denzel Bowles, who finished with 18 and 7 and was benched by Cone for a long stretch in the second period, presumably for not putting in enough effort.
Curiously, Meralco's breakthrough quarterfinal win came against Gregorio's old team, although he said he wasn't really thinking about that angle too much.
"When I went to Meralco I detached myself from them (B-Meg)," he said. "I'm not looking at it [as a game] against B-Meg, but it's an important breakthrough for us."
E-mail: sid_ventura@yahoo.com. Twitter: @Sid_Ventura
