Meralco advances to Final Four, Alaska derails San Mig

Everything was in place for Meralco Wednesday night, so well that even Reynel Hugnatan’s bizarre hairdo seemed acceptable.
Sporting pigtails, Hugnatan scored 18 points and had 12 rebounds, and Mario West scattered 25 points in an emphatic 86-68 victory over Barako Bull that put the Bolts into the Final Four of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.
This marks the first time that Meralco will enter a four-team semifinal, but the Bolts will have to wait two more days to find out who they will be playing after Alaska took its quarterfinal series with powerhouse San Mig Coffee to the distance.
The Aces battled back from 12 points down early in the fourth, riding Cyrus Baguio’s hot hands for a 112-105 victory that forged a do-or-die game on Friday for the right to clash with Meralco.
Meralco bolted out front early and never wavered, building leads of as large as 20 points as its defense shut down the men that mattered for Barako Bull, which, sadly enough, got the worst effort from import Mike Singletary.
Singletary came into the game as the tournament’s leading scorer with 36 points a contest. Last night, he was held down to just 10 total attempts from the field and made just nine points.
Meralco’s stifling defense cut down Singletary’s attempts by close to 14 shots, and the Bolts allowed just two players to score in twin digits with Ronjay Buenafe pacing the Energy with 23 and rookie Keith Jensen chipping in 10.
“It is really our defense,” an elated Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio said. “It made our game a lot easier because of the way we limited Singletary to nine points. Our defense held up tremendously tonight.
“We’re happy that we’re here, but definitely the task in not yet over,” added Gregorio. “We still have to climb up the ladder and hopefully, we get to the mountain top. At this point, you really don’t want to rest. The more games we play on only means we’re going.”
Mark Cardona scored 12 point and Cliff Hodge fired 10 for Meralco.
The Mixers led, 95-83 early in the fourth period and looked headed to advancing opposite the Bolts until the Aces caught fire with Baguio leading the way.
Baguio drilled five straight points that had the Aces coming to within 90-95 before capping his heroics with a three-point play off James Yap with 2:45 left that made it 105-100.
He did foul out with 1:56 remaining, which resulted in two free throws by Marqus Blakely for 102-105, before Alaska import Wendell McKines had a breakaway slam and a three-point play off Joe Devance that made it 110-102 with 24.6 to go.
“We can’t be satisfied now. We can’t celebrate. We have one more (game) to take care of,” said Alaska coach Luigi Trillo, who continued to enjoy success against former mentor Tim Cone.
“The time to face San Mig is now. If you face them in a best-of-seven or best-of-five, they have the depth to beat you in a long series,” he added. “You need to win just two games here, not four. And they have been beaten before.”
McKines finished with 38 points 15 rebounds and five assists, while JV Casio fired 21 and Baguio and Sonny Thoss chipping in with 17 each.
Blakely led all San Mig shooters with 27 but was an atrocious 9-of-22 from the line as the Mixers went 22-of-40 from the stripe that partially sealed their doom.