San Miguel Beer finished strong in a duel with an Alaska squad also trying to bounce back from a recent foldup and practically nailed one of two premium slots in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations last Saturday.
With their 109-96 victory in Batangas City, the Beermen regained top spot with a 7-2 win loss record with an eighth triumph all but assured for SMB when it tackles doormat Kia Picanto on Feb. 23.
The Beermen, upset by the Blackwater Elite, 106-96, in their last game, trailed by 15 points in the second quarter against the Aces, who had shown no hangover from their 96-89 loss to NLEX just a week ago.
But fiery guard Chris Ross stirred the Beermen back to their old murderous forms early in the third quarter before Marcio Lassiter presided over an SMB breakaway in the fourth period that eventually dropped the Aces to third overall at 6-4 and doomed their bid for the second prized slot among the eight qualifiers after the eliminations.
With a 7-3 mark following an earlier 96-81 win over GlobalPort, Magnolia moved up to second behind SMB with the Hotshots beating the Aces for the second best record and the twice-to-beat bonus that goes with it by getting past the Meralco Bolts in their final game on Feb. 24.
Even if Magnolia loses to Meralco and Alaska gains a tie at 7-4 with a win over Rain or Shine on Feb. 23, the Hotshots will end up No. 2 due to an earlier win over the Elasto Painters.
Rain or Shine actually has an outside chance at No. 2 with its fourth-running 5-3 card but the Elasto Painters, if they survive the Aces, still have to contend with the Beermen and the Ginebra Gin Kings.
As things stand, Alaska and Rain or Shine are assured of quarterfinal berths along with Ginebra and NLEX, both at 5-4.
But the battle for the last two qualifiers, who will need to win twice in the quarterfinals over the top two teams in the eliminations, remains too close to call. Blackwater and GlobalPort are tied at 4-5 followed by TNT Katropa at 4-6 and Meralco at 3-6. Long out of it is Kia at 1-8.
The PBA quotient will decide all ties in the eliminations with a playoff to settle only a deadlock for No. 8.
Meanwhile, the homestretch PBA battle this week will be fighting for newspaper space with two momentous events.
Scheduled today is the general assembly meeting of the Philippine Olympic Committee that will tackle the issue of “active” membership that led to a court-ordered new POC elections for president and chair on Feb. 23.
Also scheduled this week is the second window of the Asian Qualifiers for the 2019 Fiba World Cup with the Gilas Pilipinas squad under coach Chot Reyes traveling to Melbourne for its Feb. 22 date against Australia before hosting Japan on Feb. 25.
Reinforced by NBA veteran Andray Blatche, Gilas won its first two games in the tournament over Chinese-Taipei and Japan.