Cardona powers B-Boys vs Express

MANILA, Philippines - Mac Cardona returned from injury with a clutch effort as he powered Meralco to a nail-biting 95-93 victory over Air21 to remain in the thick of things in the 36th Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) All-Filipino Cup at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Cardona, who sat out his team’s 83-71 victory over Alaska Milk in an out-of-town game in Victorias City, Negros Occidental last Nov. 6 due to a hurting right heel, came through when needed, draining 10 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter to help power the Bolts to their first back-to-back victories and fourth overall in nine games.

“I’m so happy Mac Mac (Cardona) is back and gave us the big shots in the game,” said Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio.

“He (Cardona) is really a superstar in this league and he really has the ability to close the game the right way and he did it again tonight (Sunday),” he added.

Truly, it was a Cardona show in the stretch as he strung up seven straight points in a 65-second stretch as Meralco erased an 87-91 deficit for a 94-91 lead with 23.2 seconds left in the contest.

During that flurry, Cardona nailed a floater and buried a triple off a pair of nifty feeds from Fil-Am Quinton Ross. He then capped heroics with a fadeaway jumper from 10 feet over the outstretched arms of defenders Ronjay Buenafe and rookie behemoth Rabeh Al-Husseini for that three-point cushion.

Barangay Ginebra rode on a big fourth quarter surge as it turned back Alaska Milk, 79-78, in the night cap to gain a share of second with Talk n Text at 6-2 (win-loss) slate.

Trailing, 54-56, going into the final canto, the Kings went to Willie Miller and Mark Caguioa, who combined for 16 points in the last period to turn things around for the crowd favorites.

Miller wound up with 16 points while Caguioa had 14 points as the Kings closed in on the pacesetting San Miguel Beermen (7-2) while dealing the Aces their fifth loss against four wins.