MANILA, Philippines—Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he met the media following his team’s win over Rain or Shine in Game 3 of their Philippine Cup semifinals.
The 92-82 win was nice but having played a seventh game in 14 nights, a six-day break makes a big victory much sweeter for the weary Hotshots.
“For you to play seven games in 14 nights, we’re not going to deny that we’re tired. But I told my players, we get through this game and we will have a good rest at least somehow, get our fresh legs back,” Victolero told reporters in Filipino Tuesday night at Araneta Coliseum.
“The next game will be on Monday and this break is really going to be good for us. Hopefully, my players will be able to recover.”
The Hotshots have been playing every other day since beating the NLEX Road Warriors in their final elimination round game last April 3.
Down 0-2 against Rain or Shine in a best-of-seven series, Magnolia, despite feeling physically drained, knew it had to lay everything out on the floor in Game 3.
“Even though, we’re tired and we’re playing our seventh game in 14 nights,I told them that we have no choice but to need to bring back our aggressiveness and energy,” Victolero said.
That’s exactly what the Hotshots did especially in the fourth quarter where they limited the Elasto Painters to just 11 points.
“We just tried to bring back the Magnolia Hotshots basketball which is to a more defensive-minded team. We were more pesky defense and aggressive on both ends of the floor and we were focused for 48 minutes,” said Victolero.
The defense Victolero preached was on full display down the stretch of a tight game.
Magnolia was holding on to a 76-74 edge after Rain or Shine rookie Javee Mocon converted on a three-point play with 4:03 remaining.
Mocon’s basket and free throw, however, turned out to be the Painters’ final points as they went scoreless the rest of the way.
“We won because of our defense,” said Magnolia big man Ian Sangalang, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the final frame, in Filipino. “We’re really tired but we needed to give everything we had knowing we’re going to finally have our break.”
“Now we get some rest with the momentum on our side. Somehow, we were able to give them pressure in this series because in Games 1 and 2, it’s like they’re just simply playing basketball. What we really wanted to do was make them feel the pressure even just a bit of it so that we’ll have a better chance at winning Game 4,” Sangalang added.