Confidence, defense key to Hotshots’ Game 5 win, says Sangalang

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ANTIPOLO — Already without the injured Marc Pingris and coming off a horrible performance in Game 4, Magnolia silenced its doubters with an 87-78 win over NLEX on Sunday to take a 3-2 lead in their 2018 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals series.

Ian Sangalang believes the stellar showing in Game 5 was rooted in the team’s collective confidence as the Hotshots almost had the perfect game plan in foiling the Road Warriors.

“We’re confident on each other that we’ll be able to perform. We were lucky that we made the right adjustments and they weren’t able to keep up in the fourth quarter,” he said in Filipino.

Sangalang played a key role in Magnolia’s killer 16-4 blast to open the fourth quarter that extended a 59-58 lead to a decisive 75-62 advantage with seven minutes to play. He scored six of his 12 points during that crucial stretch. while also hauling down 11 rebounds and dishing out six assists in the win.

With everything seemingly clicking for the Hotshots, Sangalang, who also had 11 rebounds and six assists, is hopeful that they can sustain their groove heading into Game 6 on Tuesday as they aim to finish the job off at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

But just like what Magnolia coach Chito Victolero has been preaching, the Hotshots have to learn from their mistakes if they want to finally end their finals drought.

“We need to learn from our experiences last season. We’ve been in this position, leading 3-2 before. So we know how it is,” he said.

“After the game, there were no celebrations. We just need to focus on our next game because we couldn’t let them get that game. We want that game and we’ll push as hard as we can to get it. And it all starts on defense.”