Llamados topple Cardona-less Bolts
In a must-win situation, the B-Meg Llamados needed all the breaks they could get, and they got one very early in the game, ironically from the one player who tormented them just two days earlier.
Benefiting from the ejection of Mac Cardona barely two minutes into the contest, the Llamados built a 23-point halftime lead and weathered a big third-quarter rally by the Meralco Bolts to hack out a 95-85 victory and level their best-of-three quarterfinal series at one game apiece.
Cardona, who engineered an 18-0 run that paved the way for the Bolts' 103-81 Game 1 win last Wednesday, was tossed out at the 10:50 mark of the first period for a technical foul and flagrant foul 1, the first for shouting invectives at B-Meg guard Josh Urbiztondo and the second for hitting B-Meg's Denzel Bowles on the head with his forearm.
"If you slap somebody in the face, that was the right call," B-Meg coach Tim Cone said. "That was certainly not our fault."
The Bolts were clearly rattled by Cardona's sudden exit, quickly falling behind by 19 after one quarter and as many as 26 in the second as Marc Pingris and Bowles led the Llamados' offensive surge en route to a 52-29 halftime spread.
Meralco came back with a 39-point third period to come within eight at 76-68 heading into fourth as Earl Barron joined hands with Sol Mercado and Mark Macapagal to keep the Bolts within striking distance.
"Cardona sat out, then Macapagal hit his shots, then Barron hit his shots then Sol kept their head above water," Cone said of that big third quarter by the Bolts.
Barron's jumper at the start of the fourth made it 76-70, and suddenly the Bolts were back in the game. But the Llamados responded with an 11-4 run to push the lead back up again to double digits at 87-74 with 5:32 left.
Meralco threatened again with just over a minute left when Chris Ross's basket made it 91-85, but PJ Simon and Pingris both sank a free throw each, and Simon clinched the win with a fast break conversion as the Bolts went scoreless in the last minute.
"The game was in doubt until PJ's breakaway basket," Cone noted. The veteran coach, who won his first quarterfinal game since transferring to B-Meg, also praised Pingris for his strong performance. The power forward had a near-perfect game, going 7-of-8 from the field and 7-of-9 from the line, as he bounced back from a forgettable Game 1, where he logged only 11 minutes and scored just four points as Cone went with a smaller line-up.
"Pingris was awesome," Cone said. "We found a role for him. He played limited minutes in Game 1 [because] we felt going small, but this time we got Ping in the game plan. He just has great character to play that hard, to play that well. He was a big presence in all facets of the game."
In the second game, the Alaska Aces also forced a do-or-die game in their best-of-three series with a 99-92 win over Barako Bull, spoiling the PBA return of Gabe Freeman. The Aces led by as many as 15 points in the fourth period before the Energy came back and inched to within five at 97-92 on Willie Miller's triple with 45 seconds left. But LA Tenorio sank two free throws three seconds later, and Barako Bull wasn't able to get any closer.
This set up an Easter Sunday rubber match double-header at the Big Dome, with the Aces and Energy squaring off at 4:15 and the Llamados and Bolts battling it out at 6:35 for the remaining two slots in the semifinals.
E-mail: sid_ventura@yahoo.com. Twitter: @Sid_Ventura
