Magnolia stepped on the gas in the final canto to secure a 104-93 victory over Terrafirma and grab a share of the PBA Philippine Cup lead last night at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.
The Hotshots unleashed a strong finishing kick, 29-17, to get rid of the pesky Dyip crew that initially forced them to play catch up and made them work extra hard in putting this one to bed.
Veteran Marc Barroca, serving as the closer anew, fired 11 of his 17 points in the payoff period to grease the Hotshots’ final breakaway in the game that saw them trail by as many as 11 and needing to exert every ounce of energy to turn it around.
In escaping Terrafirma’s ambush plans, Magnolia extended its long-standing win streak against the Dyip to 21 games over the last eight seasons.
The W enabled the Hotshots not only to get back on track after a 76-78 heartbreaker against Meralco but also join idle TNT at the summit at 3-1.
The Dyip fell to their second straight defeat for 1-3 overall.
Jerom Lastimosa shot 16 to back up Barroca.