Magnolia Hotshots’ Mark Barocca in a PBA Philippine Cup game against Blackwater Bossing. -PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Magnolia’s Mark Barroca has proven time and time again that he will do what’s necessary for the Hotshots to flourish.
In the Hotshots’ 81-77 win over Blackwater in the PBA Philippine Cup at Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Wednesday, Barroca said that he welcomes the challenge of being given limited minutes due to his nagging right hand pain.
“That’s what I want, actually. To not get much heavy minutes in the elimination,” said Barroca in Filipino.
READ: PBA: Mark Barroca fuels Magnolia past Blackwater
“I’ve had heavy minutes in a lot of games now and of course, because of that, the other guys stepped up. They were given the chance to play so they took those opportunities. With this, coming to the Playoffs, I won’t be beaten up much.”
Despite the wrist injury, the Magnolia veteran dropped 19 points, five rebounds and three assists to notch his second Best Player of the Game plum—all with a hurt hand.
His limited action of 35 minutes—which is usually hovering above 40 minutes—indeed gave way for the other Hotshots to extend their winning streak to three for a 4-2 card.
READ: As Sangalang rediscovers form, Magnolia looks to continue roll
Calvin Abueva dropped a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds while Ian Sangalang was also given more minutes and dropped 10 points and three rebounds.
Other than Barroca’s unselfishness, his leadership also gave Magnolia a wake-up call after they dropped two straight games to Ginebra and NLEX early in the all-Filipino conference.
“Our competitiveness, effort and aggressiveness on both ends of the floor, that’s what we talked about. We had a mindset. In that Ginebra game, we were there but we collapsed and in the NLEX game, we had bad preparations,” said coach Chito Victolero.
“We needed to have the competitiveness in practice.”
Up next for Magnolia is red-hot Rain or Shine on Saturday at Tiaong Convention Center.