Magnolia repels Converge for first win

Magnolia weathered a furious late fightback by Converge to walk away with its first win, 105-93, in Group A of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Mark Barroca stepped up at crunch time hitting a dagger trey, dishing out an assist and swiping a steal in the closing stretch to secure the victory as the Hotshots tied with their victim, Meralco and NorthPort with identical 1-1 win-loss slates.

Defense was key in Magnolia’s early pull away as it held the FiberXers below the century mark output.

“Yes wanted to limit them below 100 points. Our goal was to allow just 92 points per game so we did a good job on the defensive end,” said Victolero, whose squad rebounded from a 94-99 opening day loss to Meralco last Sunday.

He, however, felt the Hotshots got a little complacent which gave Converge an opening to mount a scary rally.

“Maybe in the last five minutes of the game, we kind of relaxed a bit. We thought already had it in the bag. We need to address that,” Victolero added.

Glenn Robinson III paced Magnolia with 28 points while Paul Lee, Ian Sangalang and Jerick Ahanmisi, who shot 3-of-4 from the four-point area, all chipped in 14 markers.

Calvin Abueva added 10 points, Zavier Lucero had nine while Barroca made seven markers for the Hotshots’ balanced scoring effort.

Magnolia sustained the momentum of its great start in the fourth with Lee hitting a trey to give the Hotshots an 89-68 lead with 10:35 left.

But Converge refused to go down without a fight, igniting a 13-1 run to breathe down the Hotshots’ necks, 98-93, after Kevin Racal connected a triple with 1:58 left.

Sangalang stopped Magnolia’s bleeding with a putback basket before Barroca followed it up with a triple in the last 59 ticks of the game. The veteran guard then made a nifty pass to Robinson III for an uncontested layup to finally put the game away.

FiberXers import Scotty Hopson finished with 26 points and eight rebounds, Racal had 17 while BJ Andrade and Justin Arana got 11 and 10, respectively.

Alec Stockton had a terrible outing with just three points in a 1-of-6 shooting drought after dropping 21 in the FiberXers’ 127-95 blowout of Terrafirma in their opening day assignment.

Box scores:

MAGNOLIA (105) --- Robinson III 28, Ahanmisi 14, Lee 14, Sangalang 14, Abueva 10, Lucero 9, Barroca 7, Laput 2, Escoto 2, Balanza 2, Dela Rosa 2, Dionisio 1, Eriobu 0

CONVERGE (93) --- Hopson 26, Racal 17, Andrade 11, Arana 10, Santos 6, Delos Santos 5, Nieto 5, Cabagnot 4, Winston 3, Maagdenberg 3, Stockton 3, Melecio 0, Caralipio 0, Ambohot 0

Quarters: 24-18, 48-41, 82-66, 105-93