B-Meg nips Meralco

B-Meg pounced on the early ouster of Meralco ace Mark Cardona and hacked out a 95-85 victory to force a sudden death in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals faceoff last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Cardona headed to the showers barely two minutes into the game due to technical infractions and the Llamados cashed in on his early exit, leading by as many as 26 points before eventually pulling through and living to play a make-or-break game on Easter Sunday.

“I thought we did come out and set our physical presence early in the game, and that’s the key,” said B-Meg coach Tim Cone who vowed to battle the Bolts toe-to-toe after losing a rugged game last Sunday.

A double-technical was called on Josh Urbiztondo and Cardona just seconds into the game, then the Meralco top gun committed a second infraction seconds later after hitting B-Meg import Denzel Bowles on the head while both were down on the floor.

“You can’t hit somebody in the face. That wasn’t our fault,” said Cone on the incident that served as a big blow on Meralco’s bid to close out the series.

B-Meg quickly took advantage of Cardona’s ouster, scoring 14 unanswered points for an early breakaway, 17-2.

The Llamados took the opening quarter at 32-13, led by 26 at 39-13 and 40-14, then held on to the very end.

Marc Pingris, Denzel Bowles, PJ Simon, Joe Devance and Urbiztondo all came through with double-digit outputs, negating Earl Barron’s personal conference-high of 39 points and 18 rebounds.

Simon and Urbiztondo combined for 28 points, including clutch baskets that kept the Llamados in control in the face of the Bolts’ never-say-die stand in the final period.

The Llamados stayed focused all throughout, even ignoring the fans’ annoying vuvuzuelas (plastic horns). The league’s TV coveror has written the PBA a letter, requesting if it can do something about the noise drowning the TV and the radio coverage.

Barron put in 17 points while Sol Mercado tossed in 11 to bring the Bolts into the game in the third quarter of the highly physical contest marked by 54 fouls.

“We started really strong but they did a great job gathering themselves and giving us problems in the second half,” said Cone.

The multi-titled American mentor lauded his troops for handling the pressure very well, making special mention of Pingris.

“Ping was awesome. We found a role for him and he played it to the hilt,” said Cone of their energetic forward who played limited minutes in Game One.

Starting for this game, Pingris responded by going 7-of-8 from the field and 7-of-9 from the stripe for his largest output in a game in the last three years. He also collared nine rebounds.

After coming through with his first 20-point game in the conference Sunday, James Yap struggled for only eight.

Nonetheless, the Llamados dominated the Bolts, exploiting the absence of Cardona. The Meralco stalwart was summoned to appear in the Commissioner’s Office Saturday. (Video by Cris Cayanan)