There was too much to process Friday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum, after a wild Game 5 in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
Magnolia and San Miguel Beer swung wildly at each other, building runs and momentum that had everyone guessing until—literally—the final second. To top it all, a masked Avenger stormed the court and created a fracas that only heightened the endgame drama.
So in pondering over Game 6, big man Ian Sangalang went for humor.
“I just hope the Avengers won’t be storming the court on Sunday,” he said. “Maybe Thanos is already there.”
Coach Chito Victolero, on the verge of pulling off a feat no one would have thought possible except for the guys in his locker room, opted for perspective.
“Nobody believes we can [dethrone San Miguel Beer],” said Victolero. “We’re maybe the only ones who believe. But whenever we believe, good things happen to us. That’s why it’s our battle cry.”
The Hotshots will be screaming that war cry when they take the court against the Beermen in Game 6 Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum, hoping that the 6:30 p.m. tip-off will be the last for the series.
Meanwhile, they face serious questions. Most notably: Will Paul Lee see action?
“I’m OK,” Lee told reporters when asked about his left shoulder, which he hurt after colliding with San Miguel’s Marcio Lassiter late in Game 5.
“So far, it’s nothing serious. We just have to observe it continuously. We’ve ran tests earlier and I’m feeling fine,” said Lee, who finished with 12 points in Magnolia’s heart-stopping 88-86 win.
Mark Barroca was responsible for that victory, hitting the winning jumper at the buzzer just as Magnolia seems to have lost steam for the last time in the match.
Thanks to Spidey.
San Miguel Beer had trimmed a 13-point deficit to just 84-76 when a fan dressed in a Spider-man costume stormed the court, even knocking down June Mar Fajardo in the process.
The costumed spectator will face multiple charges, the Inquirer learned late Friday night.
Police Staff Sergeant Oliver Bocade of Quezon City Police Department’s Station 7 said that 31-year-old Paolo Felizarta is facing charges of unjust vexation, alarm and scandal.
Bocade said Felizarta simply wanted to send across a message, which was “to be wise in this coming election.”
Sangalang, however, said the incident nearly had major repercussions for the Hotshots.
“The game stopped. We were knocked out of focus,” Sangalang said.
The Beermen managed to tie the game at 86 on a Terrence Romeo trey but a series of empty possessions that highlighted San Miguel’s shooting woes allowed Barroca to nail the game-winner for a 3-2 series lead.
“I think it was evident that our shot selection was poor,” coach Leo Austria said. “It’s hard to win when you’re only making 29.8 percent of your field goals.”
“We [may] have arrested our rebounding woes, but we’re not able to execute in the last few possessions especially when their big men were in foul trouble,” he added. “I guess the break is not on our side. There was a lot of drama, too, earlier.”