With Simon getting canned for unsportsmanlike conduct with barely four minutes gone, the Llamados got several people to step up and help in a 92-73 victory over Meralco in the PBA Philippine Cup Wednesday night at the Araneta Coliseum.

Foremost among them was KG Canaleta, who came into the game shooting just 3.3 points only to explode with a 6-of-7 clip from beyond the three-point line for a team-high 22 points that keyed the Llamados’ seventh win in 13 games.

The victory allowed the defending champion Llamados to stay in fourth spot for a fair chance in the quarterfinals while dealing the B-Boys a second straight loss in a 6-7 card that put Meralco in danger of falling into the bottom half of the standings.

Tournament format calls for the top two teams after the eliminations to advance to the quarterfinals, needing to win just once against the No. 8 and No. 7 teams, respectively, to make the Final Four.

That’s why qualifying to the quarterfinals not in the bottom two slots is imperative for all the teams since beating the top-ranked squads would be a gargantuan task.

Teams ranked third and fourth, meantime, battle No. 6 and No. 5 respectively, in best-of-three series with the winners earning semifinal slots.

With Derby Ace having just one game left, against Barako Bull Friday, the Llamados certainly look to be headed into the first round of the playoffs in the middle of the pack, raising hopes for a repeat, something which hasn’t been done in an all-Filipino tournament in more than 25 years.

Idle San Miguel had earned the first twice-to-beat incentive as early as last week, and Barangay Ginebra and Talk ‘N Text, tied for second at the moment with 9-3 cards, are likely to dispute the second bonus also Friday night.

Canaleta, who was a forgotten commodity for coach Jorge Gallent earlier in the eliminations, has played great for the second straight game for the Llamados, shooting a personal conference-high to make up for the ejection of Simon.

Simon, the principal figure why the Llamados won five straight games at one point in this round, lost his cool after being fouled by Ogie Menor early in the game and threw the ball at the Meralco forward in disgust.

The 6-foot-1 Simon was averaging close to 19 points a game and was definitely the marked man as far as the Meralco defense was concerned.

Simon’s gesture, which happened with Derby Ace leading 7-3, merited an automatic ejection.

But the Llamados hardly missed him the rest of the way.

Canaleta, the former three-time Slam Dunk champion, hit four of his triples in the fourth quarter as the Llamados completed the rout of the B-Boys, who are now tied with Alaska for seventh in the standings.

``He got a lot of open looks and it's good that most of his shots went in,'' said Gallent of his high-leaping 6-foot-7 forward who used to average 3.3 points a game before breaking out with a 19-point effort in their last win.

``When PJ was ejected, KG delivered for us.''

Defensively, Gallent threw a blanket on Mac Cardona by assigning Marc Pingris to hound the Meralco swingman all game. Cardona missed a lot of shots but still finished with 22 points to lead the B-Boys.

In the second game, Ronjay Buenafe hit eight three-pointers that lifted Air21 to a 93-87 victory over Rain or Shine to make the jockeying out of the bottom two slots even more interesting.

The Express rose to tie the Aces, the B-Boys and now the Elasto Painters for fifth spot, making the final days of the elimination round wide open for these teams.

Buenafe finished with 29 points, his finest performance for the season, while Larry Rodriguez led the Painters with 20.