Eastern in playoffs

MANILA, Philippines — Hong Kong Eastern vented its ire on hapless Terrafirma, 134-110, and clinched a playoffs ticket in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup yesterday at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.

The PBA guest team encountered a fiery resistance from the winless but hard-fighting Dyip unit before pulling away in the payoff period to register its seventh win against three losses.

Eastern, coming off a long break since an 88-83 decision against Meralco, tied NorthPort and Converge – also assured of quarterfinals seats – at second spot to stay in the thick of the mad scramble for the two twice-to-beat bonuses.

The magic number to the quarterfinals became seven wins after the sixth loss of Phoenix (3-6) against Magnolia (4-6), 110-104, the other day and Eastern wasn’t to be denied from securing that chance right there and then – regardless of Terrafirma’s tough stand at least in the first three quarters.

“Tonight’s game started after the first 24 minutes for us. We weren’t good in the first two quarters. We’re not in the level we needed. We had a meeting in the locker room and came out better,” said coach Mensur Bajramovic.

“We’re still looking for the top two spots. We have two more games and we need to win it all. Let’s see.”

Eastern did it despite the early injury of import Chris McLaughlin, who only played five minutes before going down with an ankle injury, on top of a rigid schedule following an 84-74 win over San Miguel Beer in the East Asia Super League just the other day at the same venue.

In the other game, rampaging TNT re-asserted its mastery of archrival Ginebra in the rematch between Governors’ Cup finalists with a gritty 91-86 win to firm up grip of the pole position at 6-2.

The Tropang Giga notched their sixth straight win to shore up their twice-to-beat drive. Ginebra dropped to 6-4.