Last shot at last 8

B-Pier, Dyip in Ko Setto

MANILA, Philippines — Forget about the bungled attempts to put together the needed six wins to make the quarterfinals outright.

For NorthPort and Terrafirma, which finished with identical 5-6 cards, there’s still one more chance to meet their initial objective and all they have to do is make the most of it.

That comes tonight at 7:30 p.m. when the Batang Pier and the Dyip engage in a knockout match for the last berth in the PBA Philippine Cup Last-8 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Winner completes the magic cast alongside the top seven teams San Miguel Beer (10-1), Ginebra (7-4), Meralco (6-5), TNT (6-5), Rain or Shine (6-5), NLEX (6-5) and Magnolia (6-5).

A daunting task then follows as the eighth qualifier needs to beat the top-ranked Beermen twice in order to progress further to the semis.

The Dyip are hunting for only their second post-elims appearance in franchise history. First time was back in the Governors’ Cup in 2016, when under the Mahindra Enforcer banner, they took fifth seed and lost to No. 4 and twice-to-beat Meralco in the quarters.

Coach John Cardel’s crew led by Juami Tiongson, Stephen Holt, Javi Gomez de Liaño, Isaac Go and Kemark Carino has shown bright promise in this conference, even taking down heavyweights like Ginebra and NLEX as part of its 5-6 card.

They reached the hill with a 110-108 thriller over NorthPort but failed to follow through and got stuck at five wins via a 100-108 loss to Magnolia in their final elims game.