After being on the verge of elimination, the sister teams, Meralco and TNT rose to the occasion and put up a stellar performance in their respective games to keep their title dreams alive in the 2020 Philippine Cup.
Wednesday night was a wild night for PBA fans.
In the first game of the double-header, the Bolts shocked the heavily favored Barangay Ginebra to sneak away with the 83-80 win.
Meralco played solid basketball in the last 1:25 of the game and, despite having some mishaps, came up big on both ends of the floor.
With the Bolts having the likes of Chris Newsome, Baser Amer, Allein Maliksi, Bong Quinto, guys who have shown their capabilities to knock down long range bombs. It was veteran Reynel Hugnatan who played out of his mind in Game 4 and finished with 19 points, four rebounds, four assists off the bench including the game winning three-pointer.
Since entering the playoffs, Meralco are now 3-0 when facing elimination but heading into Game 5, head coach Norman Black knows that it will only get harder from here.
“I’m sure the players are very happy to head into Game 5 and have a chance to go to the Finals and of course it’s going to be a tough task to beat Ginebra in Game 5 but at the same time we just have to look back in this game and figure out what it takes for us get the job done,” he said during the post-game press conference.
As for the Tropang Giga, they came up huge in the do-or-die game against Phoenix.
It took just about everything that TNT had in the tank, but they tied the series at two games apiece, 102-101.
Ray Parks took over once again and made sure of a W as he finished with 36 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. He was backed up by Jayson Castro’s 21 points, four rebounds, five assists and three steals.
The Tropang Giga may have escaped with the win but the Fuel Masters put up a great fight to close out the series and Game 5 will be a must-see game.
Heading into Game 5, despite being the more experienced team, TNT head coach Bong Ravena stated that Phoenix is still a very dangerous team despite their lack of experience.
“We’re just thankful that we were able to tie the series but there’s nothing yet to celebrate. We have to be ready for Phoenix in Game 5, we know they can play, they can finish the game, so, walang relax na mangyayari samin,” he said during the post-game press conference.
The beauty of the semifinals has certainly been the never-say-die attitude that all four teams have exhibited. While many people around the world are going to be waiting to see what Black Friday sales are online, PBA fans will have two furiously contested games to witness.
The first game of the day will be the Tropang Giga against the Fuel Masters at 3:45 PM, followed by the Kings and Bolts at 6:30 PM.
Who you got in Game 5? Sound off below in the comment section.
