MANILA – Meralco Bolts wasted a lead as high as 21 points before hanging on to a 106-104 slim win over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings in a do-or-die Game 3 of the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals last night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.Raymond Almazan drilled a go-ahead three-pointer with a minute left to surge the Bolts ahead for good at 106-104 after seeing their 81-60 lead turned to a 103-104 deficit via a three-pointer from Kings’ LA Tenorio a possession later.
The Gin Kings still had multiple opportunities to tie the score but Earl Scottie Thompson committed an offensive foul, while Stanley Pringle was short with his perimeter hit at the buzzer.
Chris Newsome led the way with triple-double 21 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds as the Bolts finally defeated the Kings in a playoffs series as the advance to the best-of-seven semifinals against top-seed San Miguel Beermen.
Aaron Black chipped in 17 markers, Clifford Hodge and Allein Maliksi contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively, while Almazan, Kier John Quinto and Alvin Pasaol had 11 each for the Bolts.
Thompson tallied 26 points, Christian Standhardinger had double-double 23 points and 10 rebounds, Japeth Aguilar contributed 21 markers, while Tenorio and Pringle had 11 each for the Gin Kings.
In the first game, Jiovani Jalalon waxes hot in overtime as Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots cruised to a 112-106 win against NLEX Road Warriors in the do-or-die Game 3 of their best-of-three quarterfinals series.
Jalalon opened the OT with back-to-back layups before knocking down a buzzer-beating trey to surge the Hotshots to a 108-100 lead. The Road Warriors responded with two straight treys from Celedonio Trollano to cut the deficit to 106-108.
Magnolia widened the lead to 110-106 with two free throws from Calvin Abueva. NLEX misfired their next attempts before the Hotshots sealed the win with two freebies from Andy Mark Barroca.
Jalalon finished the game with 16 points, seven coming in the extension period, while Ian Sangalang had double-double 24 points and 11 rebounds as the Hotshots enter the best-of-seven semifinals against defending champion TNT Tropang Giga.
BOX SCORE:
MERALCO 106 – Newsome 21, Black 17, Hodge 13, Maliksi 12, Quinto 11, Pasaol 11, Almazan 11, Jose 4, Banchero 4, Pascual 2.
GINEBRA 104 – Thompson 26, Standhardinger 23, J. Aguilar 21, Pringle 12, Tenorio 12, Pinto 6, Chan 4, Caperal 0, Mariano 0, Onwubere 0.
Quarterscores: 24-18, 55-42, 85-76, 106-104./PN