Magnolia staved off elimination and kept its quarterfinals hopes alive with a morale-boosting 129–92 rout of skidding Meralco in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Friday night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

A 38-point second quarter barrage by the Hotshots set the tone for the lopsided result to secure a playoff for the last seat in the next round.

Magnolia took advantage of the Bolts sitting out import Akil Mitchell (back spasms) for the second straight game to rack its third win in a row in a string of virtual do-or-die matches and finished the elimination round with a 6-6 win-loss record tied with NLEX.

The runner-up of last season’s edition could face in the playoff scheduled on Sunday Rain or Shine if it loses to TNT in their ongoing game as of posting time. A win by the Elasto Painters will send the Hotshots to a sudden death against the Road Warriors for the No. 8 spot to take on twice-to-beat top seed NorthPort in the quarters.   

“Very proud and thankful. I appreciate all the efforts of my players because they really worked hard for it, starting in practice. We’re practicing game situations, so they really deserve to be in this position,” Magnolia coach Chito Victolero said.

Import Ricardo Ratliffe led four other Hotshots in double-figure scoring with 31 points and grabbed 19 rebounds with four assists and two steals.

Zav Lucero made all of his three-point attempts to finish with 22 points, Ian Sangalang and Mark Barroca had 18 markers each while Calvin Abueva had 14 points for Magnolia, which lorded over the boards, 51-26, and nailed 21 second chance points.

The Hotshots won by a mile for the second straight time after blowing out Hong Kong Eastern by 29 points last Sunday.  

“We’ve been in pressure-packed games (and won) because of our discipline and execution for the whole game. I think we have a good chance (of making it to the playoffs) and we just grabbed this opportunity given to us,” Victolero said.

Magnolia took full control of the game by outscoring Meralco, 38-19, in the second quarter to expand its seven-point gap at the end of the opening canto.

It was all Hotshots from there.

The Bolts closed the elims with a 7-5 mark tied with Eastern but still landed at fifth spot for a collision course with Barangay Ginebra, which beat them last Wednesday, in the best-of-three quarters.

Raymond Almazan played extended minutes for 23 points while CJ Cansino had 11 markers as the only Meralco players in double figures.

Aaron Black had nine points, Brandon Bates scored eight, Bong Quinto had seven while Chris Newsome was limited to just two points on 1-of-4 shooting despite playing for 25 minutes.

The scores:

MAGNOLIA (129) --- Ratliffe 31, Lucero 22, Sangalang 18, Barroca 18, Abueva 14, Lee 7, Dionisio 7, Lastimosa 6, Alfaro 2, Dela Rosa 2, Laput 2, Eriobu 0, Balanza 0

MERALCO (92) --- Almazan23, Cansino 11, Black 9, Bates 8, Quinto 7, Banchero 6, Reyson 5, Torres 5, Rios 5, Mendoza 4, Caram 4, Pasaol 3, Newsome 2, Hodge 0

Quarters: 35-28, 73-47, 101-75, 129-92