Magnolia veterans hold the fort vs Converge

MANILA, Philippines -- After almost blowing a 21-point lead against the youthful Converge FiberXers, the Magnolia Hotshots banked on their old reliables to avert the meltdown.

Leading by 21, 89-68, early in the fourth quarter, Magnolia loosened the grip a bit and came to the wrong end of a 25-10 run as Converge pulled to within five, 93-98, with less than two minutes remaining.

It was a furious rally by the FiberXers capped by a 3-pointer by Kevin Racal, as the momentum was clearly on their side.

However, the old-heads of the Hotshots stepped up when it mattered the most.

After Zavier Lucero missed a layup, Ian Sangalang cleaned up the mess and scored on a putback.

On the other end, Converge’s Alec Stockton, who was struggling the whole game, hoisted an ill-advised triple that missed.

Mark Barroca then attempted a 3-pointer of his own which found the bottom of the net, pushing the lead to 10 anew, 103-93, with less than a minute to go.

Converge had another chance to inch closer, but Scotty Hopson missed a trey before Glenn Robinson III put the icing on the cake with a layup.

Barroca again pulled off a huge play, stealing the ball from Justin Arana with time winding down to secure the victory.

After the game, Paul Lee stressed the advantage of Magnolia to have various veterans in the team they can rely on when the going gets tough.

“That is an advantage for us, we have some veterans, especially Mark. I know he struggled the whole game, but when pressure is high, we will go to him and we will trust each other,” he told reporters in Filipino.

“That is part of the long time we have been together, for many years,” he added.

But despite the win, head coach Chito Victolero underscored that they should not be in such positions any longer moving forward, even though it brings good and bad things.

“Actually, there’s good and bad because we need to change the attitude. In the last five minutes, where we led by double digits and all of a sudden it vanished. But in crunchtime, I rely on these guys because as Paul said, we have been together for a long time, we know each other, we know when and where to go for that last shot,” the mentor said.

“We have to learn from what happened and not go back to that point. But the good thing is, we need this kind of experience if we want to go to the playoffs, and hopefully we reach that. These kinds of games are what we need,” he added.

Lee added that the squad should continue to play fast and controlled so they will not be put in the similar position next time.

“We have to be disciplined.”