Game today:

(Mall of Asia Arena)

6:30 p.m. — Phoenix vs Meralco

Meralco is moving heaven and earth to beat Phoenix Super LPG in their knockout encounter tonight that the team is tinkering with the idea of fielding a key player that sustained a bad sprain several days ago in the Bolts' 116-107 triple overtime win in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner's Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Head coach Luigi Trillo said on the eve of the 6:15 p.m. showdown that do-it-all forward Cliff Hodge will suit up but will be used sparingly.

Hodge suffered a bad sprain in the 2:17 mark of the first overtime period and was unable to return to action.

But knowing Hodge's work ethic and mind set, Trillo believes the 35-year-old Filipino-American dribbler would go the extra mile for Meralco to pull off a victory.

The winner of the Meralco-Phoenix clash will meet top seed Magnolia in the semifinal round.

"We might be able to use him, but probably under minutes restrictions," Trillo said. "But if we see that he'll have difficulty playing, we might not use him at all because he's going to hurt the team as well."

Trillo noted that during practice, the injury was bothering the Florida-born player.

Hodge has been the primary post defender of Meralco and one of his tough assignments is to guard Phoenix import Jonathan Williams.

Both the Bolts and the Fuel Masters also used the past three days to recover from that draining triple-overtime encounter.

Once the game gets going, the Fuel Masters will be banking on the trio of Williams, Jason Perkins and Tyler Tio, who each produced at least 20 points in that losing effort against the Bolts.