![]() ![]() Jalalon sat out the entire fourth quarter with what Victolero said was a hamstring injury, and the coach said he wanted to be prudent heading into the their second do-or-die game on Sunday.The Bolts' defense proved to be a tougher nut to crack in crucial moments.Ĭliff Hodge anchors Meralco's defensive stand. But they need to sacrifice for the team." "These guys, Calvin, Ian, Jio Paul, they can easily score 20 points on any given night. ![]() "He sacrificed a lot, the effort to play defense. He is doing a good job on both ends of the floor especially on his defense. Paul can easily score 20 to 30 points, but he needs to sacrifice for his team for us to run the system. "Maybe you guys have been reading stuff, but within the circle we have no problem with Paul. Victolero also dismissed talk of Paul Lee's continued shooting struggles after the star guard shot just 4-of-13 (but a perfect 7-of-7 from the line). We need to survive together to extend the series." But because of their mental toughness, because they were smart and disciplined on both ends, we survived. "You need to weather that storm, stay focused, you need to grind every single possession. "Even in the first half in the huddle I told them will have some runs in the second half. "I told them you need to weather the storm," Victolero said. The Tropang Giga, however, just couldn't get over the hump with Williams struggling with his shot. Still, Magnolia nearly coughed up a 16-point lead as TNT got to within three points several times in the fourth quarter. You're down 1-3, so you need to come out with energy so that when the bench comes in, they'll also have fire." "We're down so we needed to get some momentum at the start of the game. "I was just trying to be aggressive and smart with my game," Barroca said. So that's why in Sunday's game (turns to Barroca), you have to be aggressive again." He knows that when he's aggressive, the others will follow. "When MB (Barroca) is aggressive, we have a good chance. Victolero knows it's clear that the team goes where Barroca takes them. In two wins, those numbers go up to 19-of-35 and 23.5 points per game. Here's an interesting stat for Magnolia: in three losses this series, Barroca has shot 12-of-27 and averaged just 9.0 points. It's a challenge for us guards."īarroca is the barometer Averaging 23.5 points from Magnolia Hotshots two wins so far in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals, Mark Barocca is proving a barometer of success for them against TNT Tropang Giga. If only one of them explodes, we have a chance to win. "What's good about it is that they (Castro and Williams) didn't explode at the same time. "Jio (Jalalon) and I were assigned to Castro," said Mark Barroca, who set the tone for Magnolia with 25 points. It was a far cry from Game 4, where Williams buried four triples in the fourth to help TNT pull away. The Hotshots never allowed Mikey Williams to get going, holding him to only 13 points and 1-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. We just want to live another day and prepare for Sunday's game." We really worked for this from our preparation yesterday until today. Credit to all of them, (from) Mark down to my 15th guy. We expected a grinding game on both ends of the floor. We limited the fouls and we played physical, and we still played within our game. "We did a good job sustaining that defense for 48 minutes. "We don't need to change anything about it. "We did a good job on defense," coach Chito Victolero said. That effort gave Magnolia a 59-45 lead at the halftime break which proved to be enough to hold off repeated runs by TNT in the second half. They outscored the Tropang Giga 31-19 and held them to 42.1% shooting while forcing them into ten turnovers. The Hotshots gave up 97 points, which is around ten points higher than their average this conference, but it was their defensive effort in the second quarter that spelled the difference. ![]()
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