Over the hump

Magnolia coach Chito Victolero described it exactly the way it should be when he said that he and his Hotshots have finally gotten “over the hump.”

Breaking free from a tight and physical Game 6 with NLEX only in the final two minutes on Tuesday night, the Hotshots scored a 96-89 decision of the Road Warriors at Smart Araneta Coliseum to make the PBA Philippine Cup title series.

Over the hump, because the Hotshots have finally dusted off a spate of close shaves in the very recent past to be in a championship series for the first time since the Tim Cone era and its Grand Slam season.

Over the hump for Victolero, because this is the first team in any level that he has coached that went this deep.

And now he’s going to fight a different battle when the best-of-seven championship against history-seeking San Miguel Beer starts, and with that, he sees just one problem.

“I don’t know how we can all get a rest,” he said in Filipino after closing out the Road Warriors in a very tiring way, 4-2. “I don’t know when the series will start. I just hope that we can have some time to rest.”

When reporters informed him of the Friday start, Victolero could only come up with a slight tap of the table inside the press room.

“We have to regroup, we’re going to a different battle,” Victolero said. “I think we are physically and mentally ready for San Miguel. But it wouldn’t have hurt us if we had more time (to rest before Game 1).”

Magnolia trailed by as many as 11 points in the first period and engaged the Road Warriors in a nip-and-tuck contest from the second quarter on.

Ian Sangalang bucked early foul trouble to shoot 15 points. Marc Barroca added 14 and Jio Jalalon chipped in 11 and 13 assists.

NLEX played without Kevin Alas, who will have surgery on Friday to repair a torn right ACL, and the Road Warriors also lost JR Quiñahan to a Flagrant Foul 2 call for clipping Jalalon in the face with 7:27 left in the second period.

But NLEX fought like crazy even with a massive manpower shortage and kept its shot at forging a Game 7 only to implode with two crucial miscues inside the final two minutes.

“Since I took over last season, I’ve been telling this team that the only way for us to make a championship series is to play defense,” Victolero, who had losing records in the NCAA with Mapua and then with KIA in its first season, said.