The unorthodox swingman again delivered the winning basket for the B-Boys in a 125-124 triple overtime victory over Rain or Shine Wednesday night as Meralco bagged the No. 5 seed in the Philippine Cup playoffs at the Araneta Coliseum.
Cardona drained a jumphook off three defenders with 4.7 seconds remaining to put an end to the game that seemed to want to go on forever as the B-Boys earned an equal chance in the quarterfinals against coach Ryan Gregorio’s former team, defending champion Derby Ace, starting Friday.
What made the victory remarkable was the fact that Meralco could have easily lost the game and qualified as the sixth seed. But the B-Boys never gave up, even after being down by six with just three minutes left in regulation.
“We displayed great character and showed everyone how the game should be played,” Gregorio, beaming with pride, told reporters later. “We played with great integrity. What we only needed was to lose by less than nine.
“But we went out there and played to win.”
Of Meralco’s seven victories in 14 elimination round games, Cardona literally had a hand in four of them.
And it was no secret that he would be having the ball inside the final 13.2 seconds after Jireh Ibanez missed two free throws for Rain or Shine which could have sealed the deal for the Elasto Painters.
Rain or Shine closed out its elimination round campaign with a 5-9 record and will go into the quarterfinals as the eighth seed. The Painters will be paired against Talk ’N Text and they would need to beat the Tropang Texters two straight times to advance.
Second-seeded San Miguel thus drew Air21 as a quarterfinal foe, with the Beermen also needing just one win over the Express to march into the Final Four.
The other quarterfinal pairing will pit crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra against the Alaska Aces, who earlier in the night clinched sixth spot after an 86-78 decision of the also-ran Powerade Tigers.
Powerade finished with a 3-11 record, tied for the worst with Barako Bull. Both squads will be taking an early break for the coming holidays.
Cardona finished with 35 points and eight rebounds in 51 minutes on the floor, and Gabby Espinas, despite fouling out in the first overtime, wound up with 20.
Another reason why the B-Boys have gone this far is Chris Ross, the often maligned Fil-American point guard who flirted with the league’s first quadruple double after shooting 14 points, dishing off 11 assists and collaring eight rebounds that went with a career-high seven steals.
Nelbert Omolon, Reed Juntilla and undrafted rookie Hans Thiele all scored in twin digits for the B-Boys.
Ross also played 56 total minutes, tied for fourth all-time in the league among locals. Derby Ace’s injured forward Kerby Raymundo holds the all-time mark of 61.
Solomon Mercado, who missed winning the game for the Painters when his three-pointer at the buzzer fell a tad short, paced Rain or Shine with 31 points and seven assists, playing at what he said was “80 percent capacity” because of a left ankle injury.
A total of six players also finished with at least 10 points each for the Painters, with Gabe Norwood and Doug Kramer shooting 17 apiece and combining for 19 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Cyrus Baguio scored 21 points and Sonny Thoss had 14 and 11 rebounds as the Aces broke away in the third quarter to win a second straight game since opening up with three straight victories.
From a tight first half, the Aces scored in spurts in the third period and steadily peeled away from the Tigers as Alaska went on to finish with a 7-7 record only to go down in the standings because of an inferior quotient compared to the Llamados and the B-Boys.
