Cobra halts Oracle; Pharex scores

MANILA, Philippines - Cobra Energy Drink finally hurdled Oracle Residences in five tries, pulling off a 92-88 decision yesterday to keep its finals bid alive in the PBL PG Flex Unity Cup semifinals at the San Juan gym.

Paul Lee, Rudy Lingganay and Patrick Cabahug combined for 10 triples, including seven in the second quarter where the Energy Warriors took command before holding on in the clutch to pound out the victory that cut the Titans’ lead in their best-of-five semis series to 2-1.

The Energy Warriors took a commanding 73-61 lead off an off-balanced trey by Raffy Reyes but the Titans struck back to within 78-79 on a three-point play by Fil-Am Chris Timberlake with 2:19 left in the contest.

Lingganay, however, came through with a twinner and Cabahug rifled in another trey as Cobra foiled the Titans’ sweep bid.

In the second game, Pharex rallied from 16-point down and hammered out an 85-76 victory over Licealiz in overtime to move closer to the franchise’s first-ever finals appearance.

Chris Ross finished with a near triple-double effort of 21 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in 40 minutes as the Bidang Generix gained a 2-1 lead in their own side of the semis duel.