Panthers pound erratic Hotdogs

Probably, Pop Cola was really destined to check its slump last night that practically all kinds of breaks went its way en route to pulling off an 85-84 squeaker over Purefoods at the Araneta Coliseum.

A charity off a technical foul on a Purefoods ball boy, slippery hands by the Hotdogs, and a free throw by Rossel Ellis helped the Panthers hack out the crucial win that wheeled them back into contention for the PBA Governors Cup Magic Four.

Curiously, the man coach Chot Reyes didn’t want to touch the ball in the closing seconds emerged as Pop Cola’s biggest hero as Ellis snared the rebound following a missed jumper by Johnny Abarrientos and hit the winning foul shot with 1.9 seconds left in the clock.

"We didn’t want to give the ball to Ellis in the crucial situation in the fourth quarter because we knew Purefoods would foul him and we didn’t want that to happen," said Reyes. Ellis is only a 54-percent free-throw shooter.

It was Purefoods’ fourth straight loss and it was a bitter pill to swallow with the Hotdogs yielding it on their undoing.

It should have been a different story if not for that one technical foul committed by ball boy Elmer Conejos for apparently taunting the referees late in the third quarter. Abarrientos knocked in the charity for a 63-60 Pop Cola lead.

Or the Hotdogs should have seized the initiative and went on to salvage the game if not for two straight rebounding errors by Richard Yee and Rey Evangelista entering the final minute of the contest.

Down by three at 81-84, the Hotdogs twice made defensive stops only to give the Panthers another ball possession with Yee and Evangelista fumbling defensive rebounds.

But the Hotdogs did manage to tie the count at 84-all with time down to 20.2 seconds on a drive by Brown and a split from the stripe by Evangelista off a foul by Juinio.

Suing for time, Reyes decided to go to Abarrientos for the final play. Abarrientos couldn’t squeeze past the tight-guarding Boyet Fernandez but still went on to throw a prayer of a shot. Abarrientos’ attempt went so short but Ellis was in the right place at the right time, pulling down the rebound and drawing a foul from Brown on the way for a follow-up.

Ellis sank only one but that proved to be the deciding point as the Panthers snapped a three-game losing skein and evened their card to 5-5.

San Miguel Beer rolled to a third straight win and gained solo fourth place with a 5-4 slate as it drubbed Alaska, 71-64, in the second game. The Aces fell to 3-6.